Witness tells court Eni official bribed him to retract allegation

By Emilio Parodi
MILAN, July 22 (Reuters) - A witness in a corruption case
involving Italian oil firm Eni ENI.MI told a court on Monday
that a senior official from the company had bribed him to
withdraw his allegations of graft, which he had agreed to do.
Vincenzo Armanna is both a prosecution witness and a
defendant in the trial in which Eni is accused of acquiring a
Nigerian oilfield in 2011 by corruptly paying middlemen. Both he
and Eni have denied wrongdoing.
Armanna worked for Eni from 2006 to 2013, when he was sacked
in a dispute over expenses, he has said.
Addressing a packed court on Monday, he said Eni Chief
Executive Claudio Descalzi authorised a company manager named
Claudio Granata to approach him and offer him his job back if he
agreed to modify his testimony.
Both Descalzi and Granata have denied the accusation, which
was initially leaked to the Italian press a week ago.
"Eni underlines that the statements made by Armanna
regarding the conduct of Eni, its CEO and its management in the
context of this operation are totally groundless," the company
said in a statement following Monday's court session.
Armanna said he met Granata in a Rome square in May 2016.
"Claudio Granata asked me on behalf of Descalzi if I could
make a memorandum to correct my interrogation statements to
Milan prosecutors and remove the reference to corruption," he
said. "In return I was offered a job back with Eni."
"Granata gave me a piece of paper in which he had written
some notes. I then copied them and presented the memo that I
deposited in Milan on May 26, 2016, in which I defended
Descalzi," he added.
Asked by prosecutor Fabio De Pasquale why he had decided to
revert to his original statement, Armanna said his lawyer had
advised him it would be "legal suicide" to stick with his new
version of events.
Armanna did not return to work for Eni and was not asked by
the court what had happened. The case continues on Tuesday.
Eni is accused of buying the Nigerian oilfield in the
knowledge that the vast majority of the $1.3 billion purchase
price would be siphoned off to agents and middlemen in corrupt
payments.
Oil major Shell RDSa.L , which jointly bought the field
with Eni, is also on trial for corruption over the deal. It
denies any wrongdoing.
While the trial against Eni and Shell enters its final
stages, Milan prosecutors continue to investigate the
allegations that Eni officials sought to obstruct justice in the
Nigeria case. No charges have been filed.