Algeria Continues Freezing Saipem’s Accounts For 9 Years

The bank accounts of Italian company Saipem in Algeria were frozen for nine years, despite the company’s final settlement of its dispute with Sonatrach in February 2018, and the freeze continues on more than DZD 100. 000 on the company’s two bank accounts, and it may continue after the Army Command ordered the reopening of the Sonatrach corruption file again.

In this context, the detailed report of the financial results of Saipem for 2019, which copy is available to Echorouk, said that the Algerian authorities continue to freeze two bank accounts of the company since February 2010 in the framework of what is known as the scandal of Sonatrach.

“The two bank accounts contain 71 million euros as of December 31, 2018, which is equivalent to approximately one billion centimes in Algerian national currency”.

The report did not mention the reason for the continued freeze of these bank accounts by the Algerian authorities, despite the settlement of disputes between Sonatrach and the Italian party, and also the decision of the Criminal Court of the Algiers Judicial Council in 2016 to lift the freezing of these accounts, but it noted that Saipem filed a challenge to the verdict that was issued by Algiers Judicial Council in 2016, but it did not provide details on the development of the merits of this appeal.

In view of the call by the National People’s Army (NPA) chief of staff, Major General, Ahmed Gaid Salah, a few days ago to reopen previous corruption files such as Sonatrach file, and his renewal of the call to speed up the procedures on Tuesday in Ouergla, the bank accounts of Saipem are likely to continue to be frozen for years to come.

The risk and liability provisions in Algeria amounted to 51 million euros (22 million euros on December 31, 2017), mainly due to the provisions that were made by the company following the judgment of September 19, 2018 by the Milan Court (Section IV) on the crimes that are attributed to Saipem and that it committed in Algeria until June 2011 in respect of some of the projects that were completed by the company years ago.

For the third consecutive year, the US Department of Justice has not renewed its request to investigate the activities of Saipem in Algeria (the $ 11 billion projects), as the reports noted that since November 2015, U.S. justice has not requested any documents that are related to Saipem’s activities in Algeria. This means that this file has been folded by American justice.