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Nigeria has filed a lawsuit against US bank JP Morgan Chase, claiming over $1.7 billion for their role in the country’s conflict on an oilfield deal in 2011. The trial was heard in February in a London high court.
The suit filed in the English court involves the energy giants Shell and Eni buying the Nigerian offshore OPL 245 oilfield. In March of last year, a jury in Milan found that the companies and executives, who all rejected the misconduct accusations, were not guilty of bribery. However, prosecutors have appealed the ruling.
In a court filing from the London case, Nigeria accused JP Morgan of being “grossly negligent” in its judgment to shift funds paid by energy giants into an escrow account influenced by the country’s previous oil minister Dan Etete instead of into the government repository.
The hearing started with details of the claim by Roger Masefield, Nigeria’s representative. The hearing will conclude on April 7, and a verdict will probably take a few months.
Masefield appeared in court to defend against Nigeria’s lawsuit, which rested on proving two fundamental points: there was a rip-off and JP Morgan knew about it.
“The evidence of fraud is little short of overwhelming,” said Masefield in the court. “Under its Quincecare duty, the bank was entitled to refuse to pay for as long as it had reasonable grounds for believing its customers were being frauded.”
Quincecare is a legal agreement that ensures the bank will not pay out if it thinks its client may get ripped off.
JP Morgan’s London offices handle business for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. They also have a presence in Nigeria.
It was “confident that it acted appropriately in making these payments,” and the bank would “robustly defend against this claim,” said the bank’s spokesman in a statement.
