Nigeria, June 26 -- A former Russian diplomat, Ednan Agaev, on Wednesday appeared before an Italian court in Milan over the controversial Malabu scandal.

Mr Agaev, a middleman and defendant in the case, once claimed that former president Goodluck Jonathan may have received $200 million in the controversial deal.

The Russian middleman helped negotiate the transfer of the OPL 245 oil block to Shell and Eni, two multinationals at the heart of the scandal.

In 2017, a report based on Italian court documents obtained by BuzzFeed and Italian business newspaper, Il Sole 24 Ore, quoted Mr Agaev as saying that Dan Etete, the former Petroleum Minister at the heart of the oil scandal, said he intended to dole out as much as $400 million in bribes ...