Paolo Scaroni: “I met Chakib Khalil, he did not receive bribes from Saipem
In a new progress of the bribes scandal and international corruption of Sonatrach, ENI and Saipem, the former executive manager of the Italian ENI, Paolo Scaroni, dropped his previous position, for the fact that Saipem funds were bribes for the Algerians.
Scaroni asserted before the Milan court that the former Energy Minister, Chakib Khalil, did not receive any bribe from Saipem, adding that he actually met with Chakib Khalil and Farid Bedjaoui but they were meetings “to simplify the procedures that were related to projects.”
Paolo Scaroni defended the former Algerian Energy Minister, Chakib Khelil, saying he is not guilty of the charge of receiving bribes and kickbacks from Saipem in exchange for oil and gas contracts worth 8 billion Euros, as his position came on Friday before the preliminary hearings’ judge, Alessandra Clemente, during which he focused on the phone call with the Economic Development Minister, Claudio Passera, and explicitly said that the case relates to bribing.”
Scaroni said, according to leaks from the preliminary hearing by the Italian media that, “I believed that news because of the events, but when I read the file I understand that there were no signs that the Algerian Minister received bribes. Then I understood that the perception of the events and the facts by the court was wrong. “
Regarding his meetings with Chakib Khelil and the mediator of negotiations, Farid Bedjaoui, Scaroni said in front of the body that it falls within the framework of very usual business meetings.
“We did not talk during these meetings about contracts and transactions. But these meetings were necessary to simplify the procedures.”
Investigation judges of the file, Fabio De Pasquale, Giordano Baggio and Isidoro Palma, renewed their request to the Court to refer the file on the public prosecution for the seven defendants, including Scaroni, Farid Bedjaoui and Samir Oriad, as the charge of money laundering was oriented against Lamar Habour, who is a French lawyer.
Same body is expected to decide about referring the file to the public trial, on July 21, during the 4th preliminary hearing of its kind, which will be probably decisive in the course of this file, which investigation took more than four and a half years.