Royal Dutch Shell Plc  .com Rotating Header Image

OSSL BLACKMAIL PLOT AGAINST SHELL

Screen Shot 2014-11-16 at 23.49.54To its credit Shell has not given in to the subsequent money demands, but neither has it apparently reported the matter to the Irish Police. One can see the difficulty. How do you go about asking the Irish police to investigate a blackmail plot over free alcohol worth over €35,000 given to the Irish Police accused of being “Shell’s Cops” and acting brutally towards people protesting against the controversial project?

JOHN DONOVAN EMAIL TO SUPERINTENDENT PATRICK DISKIN OF THE IRISH POLICE, THE GARDA

From: John Donovan <[email protected]>
Subject: OSSL BLACKMAIL PLOT AGAINST SHELL

Date: 16 November 2014 20:43:08 GMT
Cc: [email protected], Ed Vulliamy <[email protected]>, Lorna Siggins <[email protected]>, Dan Griffin <[email protected]>, Áine Ryan <[email protected]>, Paul O’Donoghue <[email protected]>, “Boucher-Hayes, Philip” <[email protected]>, Olga Cronin <[email protected]>, Erlend Skarsaune <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]

Dear Superintendent Patrick Diskin

I am writing to report what appears to be a determined blackmail operation currently being carried out against the Corrib Gas Project, which is led by Shell. The project consortium consists of Shell, Statoil and Vermilion.

Mr Andy Sanderson of Statoil has recently confirmed that Shell acts for Statoil in the matters discussed in this email.

HUNDREDS OF MONEY DEMANDS/BLACKMAIL NOTES

The most recent money demand was sent on Friday, 14 November 2014.

The demands are emailed almost every day, frequently even on Sundays.

Hundreds have been sent, as is confirmed in writing by Shell.

Printed below is a partial list of the recipients of Friday’s blackmail/money demand, which took the form of an email with graphics.

Bridget Lowe – Head of Shell Legal Ireland

Iain Middleton – Shell CP lead for Upstream and Downstream Major Projects in Europe

Michael B Coats – Shell UK Head of Legal and Associate General Counsel

Donny Ching – Legal Director Royal Dutch Shell Plc

Christy Loftus – Shell Ireland Communications

Mary Carolan – Shell Community Liaison Officer Ireland

Andy Sanderson – Statoil

Gerald Schut – Vermilion

Tracey Murray – a solicitor representing clients alleged to have received gifts

Marc Fitzgibbon – a solicitor representing OSSL present at meetings with Michael Crothers, CEO of Irish Shell, when the subject which has become the main focus of the alleged extortion plot, was discussed and dealt with by Shell.

MONEY DEMANDS SENT TO TOP EXECUTIVES AT SHELL

The demands have also been sent over a long period to the top executives at Shell who have directly discussed them with the leader of the apparent blackmail operation, Mr Desmond Kane. I refer to Mr Peter Voser, the Royal Dutch Shell CEO until the end of 2013, his successor, Mr Ben van Beurden, and the Chairman of the company, Mr Jorma Ollila. These direct discussions, which took place not by phone or email, but in person, were, unbeknown to Mr Kane, recorded and transcribed by Shell. Perfectly properly under the circumstances involved.

DEATH THREATS

As you may recall, we last corresponded in April 2011 in relation to an investigation of alleged death threats made to Shell whistleblowers working inside the same project, who supplied me with numerous Corrib Project internal emails for publication on my website.

OSSL MONEY DEMANDS

What appear to be completely unjustified money demands are being made by Mr Desmond Kane and Mr Neil Rooney, both currently residing in the UK, via their County Mayo based company OSSL. Shell, its executives, managers and officials have been bombarded with money demands from OSSL claiming payment for alcohol supplied to the Garda as Christmas gifts by OSSL on behalf of their then client, Shell.

The underlying threat – the hold which OSSL/Kane/Rooney have over Shell – is to publicly prove that Shell, acting on its own behalf and on behalf of its project partners, used OSSL to distribute gifts in connection with the troubled project, that could be construed as bribes. The main and potentially most damaging allegation is in relation to over €35,000 worth of alcohol delivered to the Garda as a Christmas thank you for battling protesters.

FULL AND FINAL SETTLEMENT

Evidence shows that Shell has already paid for all outstanding goods supplied by OSSL as part of an all claims full and final settlement with Messrs Kane and Rooney some two years ago. 22 days after the all-embracing final settlement, OSSL begun issuing further money demands, apparently believing that they still had a powerful hold over Shell, so strong and potentially damaging that Shell would pay up again to stop the potential scandal being proved as fact, rather than mere allegations.

The relevant full and final settlement and subsequent money demands were referred to in a letter dated 28 May 2013 to Clare Daly TD from Mr Michael Crothers, the CEO/Chairman and Managing Director of Shell E&P Ireland Limited. Both subjects, the full and final settlement and the subsequent money demands contained in literally “hundreds of emails” are referred to in more detail within a letter from Shell E&P Ireland to Mr Kane dated 3 October 2014.

DUBIOUS INVOICE

The same letter also makes reference to being invoiced for payment by OSSL. The invoice in question was mentioned in a related article by Mr Ed Vulliamy published by The Observer newspaper in August 2013 under the headline “Strange tale of Shell’s pipeline battle, the Gardaí and £30,000 of booze.” The Garda station where you are now located – Bellmullet – was mentioned in the article as the Garda station where alcohol was delivered by OSSL as a festive gift from Shell.

The invoice, which was partly for the alcohol delivery to Bellmullet Garda station in 2007, was raised and sent to Shell in August 2012, five years later. Its existence is confirmed in the letter Shell sent to Mr Kane on 3 October 2014.

It claims €35,475.00 plus €8,159.25 for VAT from Shell, making a total of €43,634.25 for alcohol delivered to the Garda. Other precise information is detailed.

If the allegations about the alcohol were false then there must be a criminal offense incurred in issuing a fake invoice demanding money for goods that did not exist and consequently could not have been delivered: In the UK that would be a case of demanding money under false pretenses.

If the allegations are true and a consignment of the alcohol was delivered to your station, then OSSL still had no legal grounds to raise an invoice when Shell had already entered into a full and final settlement covering all goods supplied and all possible claims, known or unknown.

I raised issues over of the fake invoice well over a year ago, but for some reason, the Garda and the Garda Ombudsman had no interest in it and claimed there was no evidence, when clearly evidence did exist and is now expanded as a result of recent developments.

The invoice is the key piece of evidence indicating criminal wrongdoing of one kind or another. The invoice should have been subjected to scrutiny in the five investigations carried out thus far – three by the Garda and two by Shell.

It is possible that OSSL received an inflated full and final settlement because of the pressure applied before the August 2012 settlement: Hence the reluctance by the consortium to pay again.

To its credit Shell has not given in to the subsequent money demands, but neither has it apparently reported the matter to the Irish Police. One can see the difficulty. How do you go about asking the Irish police to investigate a blackmail plot over free alcohol worth over €35,000 given to the Irish Police accused of being “Shell’s Cops” and acting brutally towards people protesting against the controversial project?

I have provided links to my recent articles about these matters, which themselves contain links to evidence confirming that the alcohol did exist and was discussed in the presence of Dublin solicitor Marc Fitzgibbon with senior people at Shell, including Mr Michael Crothers.

All of the signs are that Shell knows the game is up. Hence the frantic activity at my stated intention to publish a recording of a 42 minute meeting between OSSL and their solicitor Marc Fitzgibbon, which I have done without repercussion thus far, despite threats from Mr Fitzgibbon.

He claims that the evidence arising from his meeting with Mr Kane and Mr Rooney is protected by client privilege, confidentiality and the Data Protection Act. That might be the case if it had not all been deliberately supplied to me by his paying client in the belief that it would further their campaign. I do not think OSSL properly considered the ramifications of what was disclosed and how that new information would add to the suspicions I already had about their activities.

I have reported these matters to the Frances FitzGerald, the Irish Justice Minister, but thus far have not received even an acknowledgement. I have heard that Garda internal affairs have been called in but do not know if this is true.

I did indicate that I saw little point in asking the Garda to investigate, but have decided to formally request an investigation into potential criminal activity, which I am now doing on the record and will notify all TD’s and Senators accordingly.

Mr Kane categorically denies the blackmail allegations but although given the opportunity, has not provided a credible explanation of the legal basis on which the OSSL money demands are being made.

Kind regards

John Donovan

OSSL Blackmail Plot Against Shell?: 28 October 2014

Corrib Gas Project: Blackmail & Corruption?: 4 November 2014

SHELL OSSL IRISH FABLES: 6 November 2014

Shell gave Irish Cops enough alcohol to stock a pub: 10 November 2014

JOHN DONOVAN EMAIL TO IRISH JUSTICE MINISTER FRANCES FITZGERALD COPIED TO SUPERINTENDENT PATRICK DISKIN

From: John Donovan <[email protected]>
Subject: Fwd: OSSL BLACKMAIL PLOT AGAINST SHELL
Date: 17 November 2014 08:55:35 GMT
Cc: [email protected], [email protected]
To: [email protected]

Dear Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald

Printed below is a self-explanatory email that I sent to Superintendent Patrick Diskin yesterday.

I should have mentioned that I am a long term shareholder in Royal Dutch Shell Plc and for many years before that, a shareholder in Shell Transport & Trading Company.

I am reporting this matter to the Garda in my capacity as an owner of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

I have already been contacted by a Norwegian newspaper in response to the email below.

Yours sincerely
John Donovan

This website and sisters royaldutchshellgroup.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Comment Rules

  • Please show respect to the opinions of others no matter how seemingly far-fetched.
  • Abusive, foul language, and/or divisive comments may be deleted without notice.
  • Each blog member is allowed limited comments, as displayed above the comment box.
  • Comments must be limited to the number of words displayed above the comment box.
  • Please limit one comment after any comment posted per post.