The United Kingdom investigators working with Interpol on the sleazy Malabu oil scandal have dug up more damning evidence that suggested high and mighty Nigerians, mostly public officers, benefited from the oil bribes involving oil majors, Shell and Eni,  in which a former Nigeria oil  minister, Dan Etete, was fingered as chief suspect. Shell is incorporated in the UK and headquartered in the Netherlands while ENI, based in Rome, is Italy’s largest industrial company.

Faced by international embarrassment arising from the messy deal, the UK government last year stepped up investigation into the scam with UK detectives partnering with Interpol. The investigation, Political Economist learnt, stretched from UK through Italy to France and then Nigeria.  Preliminary findings showed that Etete did not act alone, he was acting on behalf of a closed group of top government officials.  Some of the suspects include a former Head of State, top military brass and a Northern politician notorious for having his name on every corruption list.

Shell and ENI paid $1.3 billion to the Nigerian government for block OPL 245, but $1.09 billion went to Malabu Oil and Gas, a company with close ties to former oil minister Dan Etete, Reuters had reported. The government retained the remainder.

Etete awarded block OPL 245 to Malabu for just $2 million when he was oil minister in 1998.

Zero Corruption Coalition, a Nigeria NGO, complained about the transaction to the UK government, Reuters said.

Etete was convicted in France in 2007 of money laundering for ‘bribes he was alleged to have taken when in government,’ Reuters said.

Malabu Oil and Gas was registered just five days before Etete awarded it block OPL 245, Reuters said.

Transparency campaigners alleged that Shell and ENI used the Nigerian government as a go-between for the payment to Malabu.

‘The proceeds of crime unit is investigating a money-laundering allegation in the UK in connection with OPL 245. The investigation is at an early stage’, a UK spokesman said.

Block OPL 245 contains up to 9.23 billion barrels of crude, ‘more than enough to keep China running for two and a half years,’ Reuters said.

In 2010, a Nigerian subsidiary of Shell was charged with conspiring to violate the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and aiding and abetting an FCPA violation.

U.S. prosecutors said the Shell subsidiary paid $2 million to subcontractors knowing some or all of the money would be paid as bribes to Nigerian customs officials.

Shell paid $48.1 million to settle the charges.

Also in 2010, ENI and its Dutch subsidiary, Snamprogetti Netherlands B.V., paid $365 million to resolve FCPA-related charges for Snamprogetti’s role in the TSKJ-Nigeria joint venture.

The joint venture paid more than $130 million in bribes to Nigerian officials, U.S. prosecutors said.

The case ranks fifth on the list of the biggest United States  Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) cases of all time.