REVEALED: How Italian prosecutors doctored evidence against Shell, Eni, Adoke in OPL 245 trial

Two Italian prosecutors — Fabio De Pasquale (pictured) and Sergio Spadaro — are likely to face trial for misconduct following the decision to open investigation against them on Tuesday.

The Italian ministry of justice’s inquiry centres on their conduct in the trial of Shell and Eni over the acquisition of OPL 245 from Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd.

The prosecutors are accused of concealing vital evidence in their bid to secure conviction — although a Milan court eventually discharged and acquitted the oil companies and their executives of corruption.

Meanwhile, Mohammed Bello Adoke, the Nigerian attorney-general when the deal was signed in 2011, had earlier alleged that the prosecutors stage-managed a telephone conversation with an impostor in order to implicate him.

He also alleged that an e-mail purportedly from him was forged as part of the plan.

According to ViviMilano, an Italian journal, the prosecutors are being accused of failing to file evidence in their possession that would have supported Eni’s position in the trial.

The magistrates also reportedly questioned the credibility of Vincenzo Armanna, a co-defendant and former manager of Eni who had been fired, following the discovery of a video recording “in which Armanna explicitly declares that he is willing to blackmail the top management of the oil company and is ready to involve the PM Milanese to send ‘an avalanche of shit’ and ‘a guarantee notice’ to the top managers of the group”.

The report said Armanna was involved in the manipulation of chats and the production of a false witness with an alleged bribe of $50,000 offered to a Nigerian policeman.

The policeman was to pose as the shadowy character named “Victor” who supposedly knew all the “dirty” details of the OPL 245 transaction.

Paolo Storari, the Italian prosecutor who investigated De Pasquale and Spadaro, reportedly uncovered evidence which showed that the telephone chats submitted to the magistrates were doctored.

The new findings came to light after computer searches ordered by the Brescia public prosecutors office to acquire all email communications from the two magistrates.

In his book, ‘Burden of Service: Reminiscences of Nigeria’s former Attorney-General’, published in 2019, Adoke had alleged that a phone conversation was stage-managed to implicate him in the OPL 245 affair.

One Ms Carlamaria Rumor, said to be of RAI Television in Italy, allegedly had a clandestine phone conversation with Adoke in November 2015 after he had left office.

The recording was filed as an exhibit before the Italian court although it was eventually withdrawn after Adoke raised the alarm that it was fake.

Adoke said the “contrived” tape by Ms Rumor was part of an elaborate set-up by some of the “powerful toes” he stepped on when he was AGF.

He said the stage-managed telephone conversation was the brain child of a “diminutive” human rights lawyer and another “diminutive Presidency figure”.

According to him, the “diminutive duo” used their human rights front in a Lagos-based non-governmental organisation to stage the fake phone conversation in order to nail him by all means at the ongoing trial in Italy.

Adoke wrote: “The truth, of course, is that this is a fake tape. Absolutely fake. If this is what the Italian prosecutors would be relying upon in their case against Shell and Eni, then they have nothing. As at 5 November 2015 when the alleged phone conversation was supposed to have taken place, I was already marked for persecution. As someone who worked at the top level in government for over five years, and was privileged to be a member of the National Security Council, I would be a complete moron not to know that telephone lines were bugged and conversations recorded. I knew very well that they were digging for dirt over the OPL 245 deal. I was fully aware of the clandestine plans to nail me at all costs. I knew very well that Italian prosecutors were fishing for evidence. How would I talk so recklessly on the phone to some Italian journalist I had never met in my life!”

He said an online report alleged that he tried to “cozy up” to the said Ms Rumor by offering her millions of dollars in return for a “relationship”.

“The appropriately named ‘Rumor’ is unknown to me and had never spoken to me. What will be the motive for asking for a ‘relationship’ with a person that I had never met, or spoken to, in exchange for information that was not exclusive to me but was already in the public space? Nigerians know that I am not a stakeholder in Malabu, Eni or Shell. I did not benefit from the proceeds of the sale of OPL 245 by Malabu. If indeed I was given $2.2 million bribe for the OPL 245 transaction as alleged by the EFCC, why would I be offering the same millions to the imaginary journalist? Offering millions of dollars just to be ‘close’ to someone I had not met? Could anything be more bizarre?” he wrote.

“To be sure, I first heard of the existence of the tape in a publication by Vrij Nederland on 26 October 2017 with the title: ‘Shell in Nigeria: Corrupt Constructions.’ When the highly libellous publication was drawn to my attention, I instructed my solicitors to write to the Dutch magazine. I also requested that they disclose the tape and the details of where the alleged interview took place, including relevant dates. Vrij Nederland declined on the ground that they were protected sources. They responded to the lawyers that they would correct the libellous aspects of the story. This they attempted to do, in their online version, although not entirely to my satisfaction. If they were sure of their facts, they would not have attempted to correct the libellous aspects of their story. They would have claimed justification.

“The disclosure I requested was to afford the parties interested in the so-called tape recording an opportunity to subject it to forensic analysis to ascertain its authenticity. I was informed by sources familiar with the Italian proceedings that the contents of the recording ‘appear (on the face of it) wrong and out of question to such a point that many top officials believe the tape was manipulated.’ I was later informed that they were seeking technical expertise from phonic court experts to authenticate the voice.

“I also learnt that the number of the telephone that was supposed to have been used in the purported telephone interview was a Nigerian line. As at 5 November 2015 when the conversation reportedly took place, I was in the Netherlands. Furthermore, I had stopped using a Nigerian telephone line as far back as August 2015.”

Adoke petitioned the police earlier this year and Olanrewaju Suraju, chairman of HEDA Resource Centre, was quizzed over the allegations of forgery.

HEDA is the Nigerian partner of the international campaigners who helped the Italian prosecutors in the OPL 245 trial.

The Corner House, Re:Common and Global Witness worked with HEDA to generate global media publicity over the trial.