Name Dan Etete | ||
Born 25 January 1945 (age 79) ( 1945-01-25 ) | ||
Dan Etete (born 26 January 1945) is a former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum.
Biography
In 1995, whereas he was Minister of Petroleum under military dictator General Sani Abacha, Dan Etete facilitated the transfer of payment of $1.1bn to a company he set up before. The company, Malabu Oil and Gas was set up in 1998 by Etete using a false identity so as to award himself a lucrative oil block, OPL245, for which he paid only $2m of the $20m legally required by the state.
At the time of Jonathan's government helping to facilitate the transfer of payment from Shell and Eni to the company, Etete was already a convicted felon of money laundering in France. The Economist reports that only $800m out of the $1.1bn meant for Malabu Oil and Gas was ever remitted by the Nigerian government. The Nigerian Attorney General, Mohammed Bello Adoke, who signed the documents involved in facilitating the payments, denied the rest was shared by public officials. The transfer to convicted felon, Etete, only came to public light when a Russian lawyer that claimed to have helped Malabu negotiate a deal with the Jonathan's government sued in New York for a $66m unpaid commission.
Both Shell and Eni, as of September 2014, are under investigation for corruption by the UK and Italy authorities for the incidence.
In 2017, e-mails obtained by anti-corruption charities Global Witness and Finance Uncovered apparently revealed that Shell’s executives were negotiating directly with Etete for a year before the oil deal which corruptly enriched Etete was finalised.
