(COMBO) This combination of pictures created on December 20, 2017 shows the logo of a Shell petrol station in central London on January 17, 2014 and the logo of the Italian oil and gas company Eni in San Donato Milanese, near Milan on October 27, 2017. Italian giant Eni and fellow petroleum company Shell will stand trial in Italy over allegations of bribery and corruption in the 2011 purchase of an offshore oil block in Nigeria according to Italian media reports on December 20, 2017. A judge in Milan ordered Eni, Shell and key figures such as Eni chief Claudio Descalzi and his predecessor Paolo Scaroni to stand trial in proceedings to begin March 5. / AFP PHOTO / CARL COURT AND MARCO BERTORELLOCARL COURT,MARCO BERTORELLO/AFP/Getty Images
October 16, 2025
An Italian appeals court on Thursday upheld an eight-month prison sentence for two Milan prosecutors for failing to file documents that would have supported energy group Eni’s position in an international corruption case.
Eni, Shell and all the defendants were nevertheless acquitted in March 2021 in what was known as the industry’s biggest corruption case, involving the $1.3 billion acquisition of a Nigerian oilfield a decade ago.
Judges in the northern city of Brescia on Thursday upheld the verdict handed down last year, which ruled that prosecutors Fabio De Pasquale and Sergio Spadaro failed in their legal obligation to file documents that could have helped the defence.
Their two prosecutors’ lawyer, Massimo Dinoia, said they would appeal to the Court of Cassation, Italy’s top court.
De Pasquale and Spadaro can carry on working while the appeals process is under way.
The Milan court that acquitted the defendants in the Eni and Shell trial said the prosecutors had failed to file among the trial documents a video shot by a former external lawyer for Eni, which the court said was relevant to the case.
The Brescia court has jurisdiction over judges and prosecutors in the nearby city of Milan.
REUTERS
