"Shell corruption probe: Top executives knew part of £1.3bn Nigerian oil deal would go to convicted money launderer", 11 April 2017

Top executives at Shell knew that money they paid as part of a $1.3bn deal for a huge Nigerian oil field would end up in the hands of a convicted money launderer who awarded the asset to his own company when he was oil minister of the country. Emails seen by The Independent and reported by anti-corruption campaign groups Global Witness and Finance Uncovered, show senior bosses at the UK’s biggest company had been informed that hundreds of millions of dollars could flow through former oil minister Dan Etete to be paid in bribes to former President Goodluck Jonathan and other political figures...Shell and Italian oil major Eni agreed to buy OPL245 in 2011 for a total payment of $1.3bn. The money was paid to the Nigerian government but instead of going to the people of Nigeria, £1.1bn was...earmarked for other middlemen…Shell and Eni are currently facing criminal charges in Italy and Nigeria over the deal. Investigators in the Netherlands have also probed the sale, raiding Shell’s offices in The Hague in 2016…