Simon Henry was at the heart of what was going on, conveying reserves data to the market while dealing with colleagues engaged in the fraud. We have to assume that none of them confided in him and that he was an innocent dupe. He was asking questions about accuracy of the reserves information, but some investors may feel that he should have been rather more inquisitive given the gathering warning signals of which he was acutely aware, that were already reaching the markets. Perhaps he did know, but was in a state of denial about what was going on? That seems to have been the case even after news of the reserves scandal made headlines around the world.
Shell was given advance sight of this article and the opportunity to point out any factual inaccuracy.
By John Donovan
In March 2002, Simon Henry, the current Chief Financial Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc was head of Investor Relations for the Royal Dutch Shell Group.
Mr Henry was responsible for gathering reserves data and ensuring the quality/accuracy of the data before it was disclosed to analysts and investors. It turned out that some of the data was not only inaccurate, but also fraudulent.