WASHINGTON, Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Italian energy company Eni said the U.S. government dismissed a case against a former subsidiary accused of corrupting Nigerian officials.
Eni said in a statement that the U.S. Justice Department filed a motion to dismiss charges related to former subsidiary Snamprogetti Netherlands BV. The company, now under the control of Saipem, another Eni subsidiary, was accused of corrupting Nigerian public officials in a deal to build a liquefied natural gas plant in Bonny Island.
The Italian energy company said the dismissal "definitively concludes the U.S. criminal proceedings against Snamprogetti Netherlands BV."
The Justice Department noted in a 2010 filing that Snamprogetti agreed to pay a $240 million penalty to the U.S. Treasury Department.
"The dismissal of the criminal information follows the two-year period set out in the deferred prosecution agreement entered into in July 2010 between Eni, Saipem and the U.S. Department of Justice, and of the fulfillment by Eni and Saipem of the commitments contained therein," Eni said.
A subsidiary of Eni was suspected of giving bribes to people close to the president of Kazakhstan through 2007. Eni is also under investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for alleged corruption in Libya.
