Saipem case: Khelil and Sonatrach’s officials got $265 million of bribes
Eni chief executive Paolo Scaroni admitted on Thursday he met Farid Noureddine Bedjaoui, a relative of a former Algerian foreign secretary, whom a search warrant said distributed $265 million of bribes to Algerian former energy minister Chakib Khelil and officials at Sonatrach to win gas contracts.
Investigators searched Scaroni’s home and offices in Italy. Eight people, most of them former Saipem executives, are under investigation.
Investigations showed that the bribes were paid by companies of the Saipem group to a company called Pearl Partners Limited, based in Hong Kong, of which Bedjaoui, was a beneficiary.
Scaroni and Eni North Africa chief Antonio Vella held a meeting with Bedjaoui and Khelil at a Paris hotel, according to prosecutors.
“The meeting was aimed at obtaining a further order … to increase profitability at the Menzel Ledjemet Est (MLE) field,” the search warrant said.
“What fixer? The person mentioned in the prosecutors’ document I met just once in my life and only for a few minutes,” Scaroni was quoted as saying.
“He was introduced to me as the special secretary of the Algerian energy minister: he accompanied me, and I never saw him again.”
Earlier in December former Saipem CEO Pietro Franco Tali and Eni CFO Alessandro Bernini resigned after an investigation had opened into alleged corruption in Algeria.
Eni which owns 43 percent of Saipem has operated in Algeria since 1981.