Italy is seeking a trial in a case of alleged fraud involving a cargo of Iraqi crude shipped for oil company Eni on a suezmax in 2019.
Prosecutors in Milan accuse a former employee and others of attempting to defraud the group, according to a document from the prosecutors’ office seen by Reuters.
Sources had previously told the news agency the shipment of oil was believed to be from Iraq but caused panic over fears it could be at least partly Iranian and breach US sanctions.
The 160,200-dwt White Moon (built 2012), controlled by UK-based Zodiac Maritime, arrived at the end of May 2019 at the Milazzo refinery in Sicily, part-owned by Eni, which rejected the cargo because it did not match the Iraqi Basra Light it had contracted.
The tanker stayed put for three weeks before sailing back to the Middle East Gulf.
Eni had bought the crude from Nigeria’s Oando, which had acquired it from Italian fuel trading company Napag.
The document names, among others, Massimo Mantovani, the former chairman of Eni Trading & Shipping.
Francesco Mazzagatti, a former partner and former director of Napag, is also on the list, with Boyo Omamofe as former boss of Oando Trading.
Omamofe is now listed as deputy group chief executive on Oando’s website.
Hearing to last months
A judge now has to decide whether there are grounds for a full trial. A hearing that began this week is expected to last for months.
A lawyer for Mazzagatti in Italy said his client was “extraneous” regarding the Milan proceedings, which were described as “procedural”.
The lawyer said the case related to “false and outdated claims” and “there has been no wrongdoing on his part”.
A lawyer for Mantovani also stressed his client was innocent.
Oando and Omamofe’s legal representatives denied all wrongdoing. They said: “If there was any deception, we too are deceived, not deceivers.”
Eni is not commenting. Zodiac Maritime is not involved in the case.
