Royal Dutch Shell files criminal complaint against ex-employee Robinson

It is also said the company was already under investigation over a separate deal.

According to Punch, Dutch prosecutors confirmed they had received the complaint against Robinson, a former vice president for sub-Saharan Africa at Shell. They said it would be included in an ongoing investigation into Shell and Italy’s Eni over the acquisition of a different Nigerian oilfield, known as Oil Prospecting Licence 245.

In relation to OPL 245 in which Robinson is being prosecuted, Shell and Eni deny any wrongdoing . A spokesman for Anglo-Dutch Shell said the two cases were unrelated, according to Reuters.

Shell said an internal investigation had found that Robinson might have committed a crime during the sale of an onshore oilfield, Oil Mining Lease 42, to Neconde Energy Limited, a Nigerian E&P company, by the oil major in February 2011.

A Shell spokesman says in a statement: “We suspect a crime may have been committed by our former employee, Peter Robinson, against Shell in relation to the sale process for Oil Mining Lease 42 in Nigeria in 2011.

“We have filed a criminal complaint with the Dutch authorities and are considering other steps we could take.”

Robinson is one of a number of Shell employees being prosecuted in Milan over OPL 245. He worked in Nigeria for Shell from 2008 to 2011 as vice president for commercial in the sub-Saharan Africa region, part of a tenure at the company lasting more than 30 years.

The new evidence was uncovered after investigators looking into OPL 245 raided a house in Perth, Australia owned by Robinson, according to a source close to the process.

The evidence included documents showing Robinson had set up a Seychelles-based company, which was later linked to two Swiss bank accounts set up in 2011 also under his name, the source said.

Shell suspected that the company and the accounts might have been used to process kickbacks, the source added.

Shell, the largest international oil producer in Nigeria, is looking methodically at other transactions in which Robinson was involved, the source said.

The spokesman said Shell had informed the United States Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission about the offshore company and the accounts.

Swiss federal prosecutors have supplied information to authorities in Italy and the Netherlands probing alleged corruption related to oil contracts in Nigeria, the Office of the Attorney General said on Wednesday.