A trove of internal Shell emails seen by the Financial Times and dated between 2008 and 2010 leave no doubt that senior people within the company knew that most of the $1.3bn paid together with Eni for OPL 245 was destined for Malabu, and that much of the money would end up with Mr Etete and associates. Shell had previously said only that the money was paid to a Nigerian government escrow account.
In the intercepted phone call with Mr Henry, Mr van Beurden acknowledged Shell’s own investigation uncovered “unhelpful” and “stupid” email exchanges among former UK intelligence agents hired by the company to help negotiate the OPL 245 deal.
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