Berlusconi opens fire on Italian investigations into Sonatrach’s corruption scandal
Italy’s former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi criticized investigations into a corruption case between Eni and Saipem companies, Algerian government officials and others at Sonatrach.
“Those investigations will destroy the companies. They will not give the opportunity to those companies to win international deals anymore. The companies will not be able to find a work abroad,” Berlusconi told an Italian TV channel.
Eni’s CEO Paolo Scaroni is a close friend to Berlusconi who helped him when he was involved in a corruption scandal in 1992. In 2002, Berlusconi appointed him as INAIL’s CEO before heading Eni in 2005.
Berlusconi’s remarks come as he relied on Eni and Saipem’s officials to support him in his electoral campaign for February 24th-24th’s legislative elections. The former prime minister wants to hold the position once again.
Earlier Eni signaled it could be open to a sale of its oil services subsidiary Saipem following the corruption scandal with Algerian officials.
“We always considered it (Saipem) strategic … the events we’ve gone through now lead us to rethink the relationship long term,” Scaroni said.
He denied allegations that he would resign as Eni’s CEO, saying he does not see any convincing reason for resigning.