A corruption lawsuit against Eni head Claudio Descalzi over oil production contracts in the Republic of Congo won't be pursued, Italian prosecutors have said.
Magistrates have made a formal request to dismiss charges against all the defendants in the case.
The case consists of Descalzi's alleged failure to declare a conflict of interest in Eni's deals in the Republic of Congo when he was found to conclude contracts with a company owned by his wife, a Congolese national, Madeleine Ingoba. She and the other six defendants joined Descalzi in being accused of felonies related to international corruption.
The main alleged crime in the case was changed from bribery to undue inducement. It will be time-barred on March 18, while the crime of failure to declare a conflict of interest is already time-barred.
Eni has already been trialed over corruption in another African state, Nigeria.
Along with the Nigerian subsidiary of the Shell corporation, Eni purportedly used the majority of money acquired in a $1.3 billion deal to purchase an offshore oil block in 2011 to bribe the country's officials. However, the Italian court acquitted the companies, as well as Eni CEO Descalzi, in July 2022 with Nigeria's $1.092 billion compensation request being rejected in November 2022.