There are indications that the Office of the Attorney General of Switzerland (OAG) may have blocked various bank accounts in Switzerland belonging to Nigerians and other suspected fraudsters over an alleged oil bribery scheme linked to Nigeria, Swiss Info reports.
Executives from oil giants Shell and Eni are due to stand trial in Milan, Italy, in May over alleged bribes paid to secure a licence for an oil field in OPL 245. At the request of the Milan public prosecutor, the Swiss authorities have confiscated assets and provided information and assistance to the Italian authorities, the Swiss attorney general’s office confirmed on Monday.
Three separate bank accounts in Lugano, Basel and Geneva were blocked, according to a report in German-speaking Tages-Anzeiger newspaper on Monday. The prosecution confirmed this, but declined to comment on the value of the assets which were seized. The Tages-Anzeiger cited “several hundred million francs”, while the Nigerian authorities quoted a bribery sum of $801 million.
