Sentence for Saipem, acquittal for Eni. This is the first instance sentence of the Court of Milan in the context of the international corruption trial relating to the alleged bribes paid to the former Algerian energy minister, and his entourage, in exchange for contracts for the exploitation of oil fields in the African country.
The former CEO of Eni, Paolo Scaroni, now president of Milan, was acquitted because the crime did not exist. Absolution also for Antonio Vella, manager of Eni and for the same group of the six-legged dog.
Milan Public Prosecutor Isidoro Palma had asked for a sentence of 6 years and 4 months for Scaroni, 5 years and 4 months for Vella and a fine of 900 thousand euros for Eni.
As part of the same trial, the former president and CEO of Saipem, Pietro Tali (4 years and 9 months), the former chief operating officer of Saipem in Algeria Pietro Varone (4 years and 9 months), the 'former financial director first of Saipem and then of Eni Alessandro Bernini (4 years and one month). Finally, sentences for Farid Bedjaoui, considered the trustee of the then Algerian energy minister Chekib Khelil (5 years and 5 months), Samyr Ouraied (4 years and one month), also a trustee of the minister, and Omar Habour, considered an alleged launderer of bribes paid in Algeria by the Italian group (4 years and one month.)
The sentence came for the charge of international corruption perpetrated according to the judges on some contracts obtained by Saipem in Algeria. The defendants themselves were acquitted of charges relating to alleged irregularities in the First Calgary operation.
The Saipem company, accused for the 231/2001, was sentenced to a fine of 400 thousand euros and the confiscation of over 197 million euros, a figure that would correspond to the value of the alleged bribe paid in Algeria. According to the judges, therefore, that money did not represent a normal commission for a lawful commercial intermediation, but a bribe paid to the Energy Minister and Algerian bureaucrats between 2008 and the beginning of 2011 through the Hong Kong company of (fake) consultancies «Pearl Partners Limited» by Farid Bedjaoui. In exchange, Saipem would have obtained global protection in 8 energy contracts for a value of 11 billion dollars.
