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Shell still trying to duck handing over oil price rigging evidence

Screen Shot 2013-05-17 at 01.06.41Shell is still desperately trying to avoid handing over potentially incriminating evidence in the form of documents and audio recordings in connection with a proposed US class action lawsuit alleging that oil prices were rigged.  

By JohnDonovan

Shell is still desperately trying to avoid handing over potentially incriminating evidence in the form of documents and audio recordings in connection with a proposed US class action lawsuit alleging that oil prices were rigged.

“Shell Oil Co., Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc. and Plains All American Pipeline LP told the Second Circuit on Thursday that a lower court exceeded its authority in allowing the disclosure of sensitive documents provided to federal investigators.” (Extract from Law360 article)

Reminds me of when the boot was on the other foot and Shell was desperate to get its hands on a document in my possession when it had brought a counter-claim action against me over a breach of confidence case.

Shell applied to the court, but the Judge refused to order that it be handed over. He accepted that it was privileged. Shell lawyers made it plain that they would get the document in any event.

Shortly thereafter burglaries occurred at my house, the residence of my solicitor and a third party holding documents relating to the case. The document in question was tampered with. Under the circumstances, the police investigated but although like me, had little doubt who was responsible, had no evidence to prove it. I only found out a couple of years later that Shell directors were at the time running a corporate espionage outfit engaged on an international basis in carrying out all kinds of skullduggery against Shell’s opponents. Shell had not disclosed its close connection with Hakluyt to the police.

Extracts from: APPELLANT SHELL OIL COMPANY’S JOINDER IN BRIEF OF APPELLANT PLAINS ALL AMERICAN PIPELINE, L.P. ” filed on Thursday 2 January 2014

CORPORATE DISCLOSURE STATEMENT

Pursuant to Fed. R. App. P. 26.1, appellant Shell Oil Company states that it is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shell Petroleum Inc. Shell Petroleum Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shell Petroleum N.V. Shell Petroleum N.V. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell pic, a publicly traded company. No publicly held corporation owns 10% or more of the stock of Royal Dutch Shell plc.

JOINDER

Appellant Shell Oil Company (“Sheil”) respectfully joins in the brief of Plains All American Pipeline, LP’s (Plains’ Brief, 2nd Circuit Case No. 13-4263, Rec. D. 159) (Plains’ Mot., 2nd Circuit Case No. 13-4447, Rec. D. 67) and hereby adopts and incorporates the jurisdictional statement, factual recitation and legal arguments and authorities set forth therein.

Shell adds as follows: Shell, along with certain affiliated entities, produced a wide range of documents containing proprietary and confidential business information to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) in connection with the CFTC’s non-public review of the national crude oil markets in the United States for the period covering 2007 and 2008. Those documents included, among others, records relating to Shell’s crude oil refineries, storage caverns to which Shell had access, and pipelines on which Shell transported crude oil. See JA157 (Case No. II-cv-3600, Dkt. No. 121, Objections of Shell Oil Company (“Shell Objections”) at 2). Accordingly, Shell requested confidential treatment for those documents under the Freedom of Information Act pursuant to CFTC Rule 145.9, 17 C.F.R. § 145.9. See JAl58 (Shell Objections at 3.). Shell understands that the CFTC produced at least some of those documents to the Defendants-Appellees as part of its enforcement action against them. However, that action is limited to alleged wrongdoing during 6 month period in 2008, and it involves a single grade of crude oil at a specific trading hub in Oklahoma. See JA 157 (Shell Objections at 2.). Notwithstanding this obvious temporal and subject matter disconnect, Shell further understands that the CFTC produced many of Shell’s documents without any review by the CFTC, much less a relevancy determination. See, e.g., Case No. l1-cv-3543, Okt. No. 104, CFTC’s Response to Objections by Third Parties at 7 (available at JA 155 in No. 13-4206 Joint Appendix) (stating that relevant documents of Shell and other non-party objectors were housed by the Commission in 46 different databases and consisted of nearly six million documents); JA235 (No. ll-cv-3600, Okt. 147, at 51:22-25) (stating that “hundreds or tens of thousands of [nonparty] audio” recordings were produced to Defendants-Appellees without review). These same documents produced to the Defendants-Appellees by the CFTC are now the subject of a document request from the plaintiffs in a related putative class action. See JA158 (Shell Objections at 3.).

Respectfully submitted, Dated: January 2,2014

By: s/ Anthony M. Mansfield

Anthony M. Mansfield
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP 700 Sixth Street, NW
Washington, DC 2000 I
Telephone: (202) 862-2321

Facsimile: (202) 862-2400 2

[email protected]

Joshua L. Shapiro
Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP One World Financial Center
New York, NY 10281
Telephone: (212) 504-5575 Facsimile: (212) 504-6666

[email protected]

Attorneys for Appellant Shell Oil Company

FULL DOCUMENT: Case13-4263Doc01-02-2014

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One Comment

  1. Earl Richards says:

    Shell and Morgan Stanley would have no problem in rigging oil prices, because they are founding partners and members of the IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) in Atlanta. Google the “$2.5 Trillion Oil Scam – slideshare” and Google “Goldman’s, Global Oil Scam.” ICE rigs the oil prices, the oil supply-chain and the oil markets. The US and most of the world are victims of this scam. To avoid the Big Oil rip-off, plug your Tesla S electric car into your household, solar array.

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