Italian prosecutors have asked for Claudi Descalzi, the CEO of Italy's state-controlled oil major Eni, to stand trial over alleged corruption surrounding Eni and Royal Dutch Shell Plc's (NYSE: RDS.A) 2011 purchase of Nigeria's OPL-245 offshore oil block for about $1.3 billion, according to judicial sources Feb. 8.
The prosecutors also asked for 10 other people, including former Eni CEO Paolo Scaroni, to be sent for trial along with Eni and Royal Dutch Shell, the sources said.
Scaroni was not immediately available for comment. No comment was immediately available from Shell.
In emailed comments, an Eni spokesperson said the company had not been informed of any decision and had acted correctly.
Under Italian law a company can be held responsible if it is deemed to have failed to prevent, or attempt to prevent, a crime by an employee that benefited the company.
The Italian probe is one of several threads of inquiry underway into the acquisition of OPL-245, including current cases in Holland and Nigeria.
In January, a Nigerian court ordered the temporary forfeiture of assets and the transfer of operations of the oil field.
Italian prosecutors closed their investigations into the case in December of 2016.
A court must now set a date for a hearing at which a judge will decide whether to accept the prosecutors' request or acquit the accused.
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