It is an international intrigue made of oil, bribes, favors and silences, the one unveiled by the Milan prosecutor's office. In the eye of the storm is Saipem, the Eni group company that provides services in the oil sector. Everything revolves around an alleged bribe paid to the Algerian authorities, in part given to the former chief operating officer of the Italian company, Pietro Varone, currently arrested and suspended by the company on a precautionary basis last December 5th.
The Milanese prosecutors - reports Corriere della Sera - have asked Singapore to block more than 100 million dollars in accounts attributable to Farid Bedjaoui, Saipem's intermediary and, above all, "representative" in Dubai of the interests of Chekib Khelil, Algerian minister of 'power. But that's not all, the magistrates would like to freeze another 23 million dollars in Hong Kong current accounts still held by Bedjaoui, who has an international arrest warrant pending. The investigators also went to Lebanon, with a rogatory letter on accounts connected to the minister's family, shareholder in companies set up by the intermediary through a Swiss trust in Panama.
A real international petrodollar, which does not end there. In fact, there would also be two trips to Italy costing a good 100 thousand euros and billed to Tullio Orsi, former president of Saipem in Algeria, to Mohamed Meziane, president of Sonatrach, the state oil giant in Algeria. Meziane's son, Orsi's personal advisor, is also on the payroll at a thousand euros a month. Crumbs compared to the million and 750 thousand dollars that would have ended up in the pocket of El Hameche Mohammed Reda, Meziane's chief of staff.
The acrobatic round of money ends on a high note, with 10 million euros returning to Italy, recipient of Saipem's chief operating officer, Sandro Varone, and 5,2 million paid by Bedjaoui to Orsi for – quotes Corriere – “to pay the silence on embarrassing facts at the time of Orsi's departure from the company (with 4 euros per month of consultancy) as an initial scapegoat.”
According to the prosecution, Saipem in Algeria would have been awarded 7 contracts, total value eight billion euros, thanks to the payment between 2007 and 2010 of a bribe equivalent to 2,5% of the amount: 197 million dollars. The arrest of the former manager took place on 28 July and his lawyers presented an appeal to the judges of the Court of Review.
