Dan Etete (born 26 January 1945) aka Chief Dauzia Loya Etete, was the former

Nigerian Nigerians or the Nigerian people are citizens of Nigeria or people with ancestry from Nigeria. The name Nigeria was derived from the Niger River running through the country. This name was allegedly coined in the late 19th century by British jo ...

Minister of

Petroleum Petroleum, also known as crude oil or simply oil, is a naturally occurring, yellowish-black liquid chemical mixture found in geological formations, consisting mainly of hydrocarbons. The term ''petroleum'' refers both to naturally occurring un ...

(1995–1998), under the regime of Gen.

Sani Abacha Sani Abacha (; (20 September 1943 – 8 June 1998) was a Nigerian military dictator and statesman who ruled Nigeria with an iron fist as military head of state from 1993 following a palace coup d'état until his death in 1998. Abacha's seiz ...

's 1995 and was convicted as a money-launderer in the year 2007.

Biography

Dan Etete, was found guilty of money laundering by a French court in 2007. He was also found to have used illicit funds to buy a speedboat and a chateau. Since then, Dan Etete has been involved in series of illegal and

fraudulent In law, fraud is intentional deception to deprive a victim of a legal right or to gain from a victim unlawfully or unfairly. Fraud can violate civil law (e.g., a fraud victim may sue the fraud perpetrator to avoid the fraud or recover mone ...

business practices both local and abroad. In the year 2007, he was convicted and sentenced to 3 years imprisonment also with a fine of 300,000 euros(about $440,000) by the

French Government The Government of France (, ), officially the Government of the French Republic (, ), exercises Executive (government), executive power in France. It is composed of the Prime Minister of France, prime minister, who is the head of government, ...

for money laundering. Later on he was pardoned by the French government in the year 2014, Dan Etete's illegal involvement or activities did not stop there but continued as he was said to have been involved in helping to facilitate the illegal transfer $1.3 billion for the sale of the oil block owned by Malabu Company from

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

and

Eni Eni is an Italian oil and gas corporation. Eni or ENI may refer to: Businesses and organisations * Escuela Nacional de Inteligencia, the Argentine intelligence academy * Groupe des écoles nationales d’ingénieurs (Groupe ENI), a French engi ...

and transferred to the company during the former

President Goodluck Jonathan's administration, who was also claimed to be involved in the fraudulent deal in 2011.

Corruption

In 2011, as a former Minister of Petroleum under military dictator General

, Dan Etete facilitated the transfer of payment of $1.1 billion to Malabu Oil and Gas. Malabu was set up in 1998 by Dan Etete using a false identity so as to award himself a lucrative oil block, OPL 245, for which he paid only $2 million of the $20 million legally required by the state. At the time of

Goodluck Jonathan Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan (born 20 November 1957) is a Nigerian politician who served as the president of Nigeria from 2010 to 2015. He lost the 2015 presidential election to former military head of state General Muhammadu Buhari and ...

's government, Dan Etete was said to have helped facilitate the transfer of payment from

and

to Malabu Oil and Gas. The

Economist An economist is a professional and practitioner in the social sciences, social science discipline of economics. The individual may also study, develop, and apply theories and concepts from economics and write about economic policy. Within this ...

reports that only $800 million out of the $1.1 billion meant for Malabu Oil and Gas was ever remitted by the Nigerian government. The Nigerian Attorney General, Mohammed Bello Adoke, who signed the documents involved in facilitating the payments, denied the rest was shared by public officials. The transfer to convicted felon, Dan Etete, only came to public light when a

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n lawyer that claimed to have helped Malabu negotiate a deal with the Jonathan's government sued in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

for a $66 million unpaid commission. Both Shell and Eni, as of September 2014, are under investigation for corruption by the UK and

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

authorities for the incidence. In 2017, e-mails obtained by anti-corruption charities Global Witness and Finance Uncovered apparently revealed that Shell's executives were negotiating directly with Dan Etete for a year before the oil deal that corruptly enriched Dan Etete was finalised.Shell and the money-launderer: Damning emails of Nigerian deal

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

(UK), 10 April 2017.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Etete, Dan Living people Nigerian Christians Federal ministers of Nigeria 1945 births