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John Copleston

Eni, Shell To Stand Trial Over Alleged Corruption In Nigeria

By Tsvetana Paraskova – Dec 20, 2017, 11:30 AM CST

An Italian judge ordered on Wednesday oil majors Eni and Shell, as well as Eni’s CEO Claudio Descalzi and other former and present managers at Eni and Shell, to stand trial over alleged $1.3-billion corruption in an acquisition of an oil block in Nigeria back in 2011.

Giusy Barbara, a preliminary hearing judge at a Milan court, set the trial to begin on March 5, 2018, in Milan.

In February this year, Italian prosecutors asked for Eni, Shell, Descalzi, and ten others to stand trial over charges of alleged international corruption over alleged payment of US$1.3 billion in bribes to the former Nigerian government in 2011, for which Eni and Shell allegedly secured exclusive rights to develop the oil block OPL-245 offshore Nigeria. read more

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.

Dutch law firm Prakken d’Oliveira Target of Shell Spying?

Email Sent To Prakken d’Oliveira by John Donovan, Sunday 10 December 2017

Be Warned: Your Law Firm is Almost Certainly Under Surveillance Again!

As Prakken d’Oliveira is aware, for more than two decades I have operated websites focussed on the *global misdeeds of Royal Dutch Shell. In more recent years, mainly via my websites royaldutchshellplc.com and royaldutchshellgroup.com. I make the above warning based on my own experience during a long drawn out acrimonious relationship with Shell.

Perceived as an arch-enemy, I have been the target of multiple spying operations carried out over many years at the behest of Shell senior management. I have irrefutable proof in the form of letters of admission by Shell and confidential Shell internal communications obtained in response to SAR applications under the Data Protection Act. UK police have carried out  investigations covering burglaries, threats of violence and repeated cyber attacks. read more

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.

A new revelation about Shell in Nigeria shows that oil trade always makes dirty hands

Google translation of an extensive OPL 245 article published in Dutch. Cannot guarantee that all the links work. Listen here to the unprincipled notorious BvB/Simon Henry wiretapped phone call. Instruction given to withhold information from the police and Shell shareholders. (Currently conversation 9 down from the top)

Jelmer Mommer, Correspondent Climate & Energy

27 October 2017

In 2011, Shell concluded a deal to win oil for the Nigerian coast. Of that, a condemned money launderer benefited – with the knowledge of Shell. Free Netherlands publishes a new reconstruction about the case this week, based on a file of thousands of pages, internal emails, reports and listened calls.

In the amazing documentary Here was the unforgettable film about oil, corruption and capitalism. Here was the unforgettable film about oil, corruption and capitalism. Big Men, says a member of a small American oil company doing business in Ghana: “The oil business is a team sport.” read more

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.

Unexplainable ascent of ethically flawed Malcolm Brinded

Malcolm Brinded – ethically challenged President of the Energy Institute and Chairman of the Shell Foundation. 

By John Donovan

I recently received an email asking how it is possible that the Energy Institute could have a crook as its president. A reference to Malcolm Brinded, alleged in the email to have a “history of quasi psychopathic behaviour towards hundreds of offshore workers put at risk for years to protect Brinded’s personal ambitions.”

Brinded was elected as President of the Energy Institute on 4 July 2017. Equally astonishing is the fact that Brinded also remains Chairman of the Shell Foundation. read more

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.

Corruption charge looms for outgoing BHP director Malcolm Brinded

  • The Times

One of Royal Dutch Shell’s most senior former executives is due to learn within weeks whether he will face trial in Italy on corruption charges.

Investigating magistrates requested over the northern summer that Malcolm Brinded and three other former Shell employees be tried for alleged international corruption relating to Shell and Eni’s dollars 1.3 billion acquisition of a big oil exploration block offshore Nigeria.

They are understood also to be seeking trials of Shell itself, as well as Eni, the Italian oil major, and Claudio Descalzi, its chief executive. read more

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.

Italian prosecutor requests Brinded trial over OPL 245

17 Oct 2017 An Italian prosecutor has requested the trial of ex-Shell upstream boss Malcolm Brinded and other former employees of the supermajor over alleged corruption involving the infamous OPL 245 block deal in Nigeria.

Former Shell vice president for commercial Sub-saharan Africa, Peter Robinson, is also among the four men Milan’s Public Prosecutor’s Office has requested be sent to trial over the $1.1 billion deal that saw the oil block handed to Shell and Italian major Eni by a company controlled by then-Nigerian petroleum resources minister Dan Etete.

The other two men against whom the prosecutor has requested a trial are former strategic investment advisor John Copleston and one-time senior business advisor Guy Colegate, both of whom are ex-MI6 officers. read more

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.

4 former Shell execs are a step closer to being charged for an alleged $1.1 billion bribery scheme

Camilla Hodgson: 18 October 2017

LONDON – Italian prosecutors have requested to charge four former executives at oil giant Shell over an alleged $1.1 billion bribery scheme in Nigeria.

The Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office has issued a formal Request for Indictment on bribery charges for the former employees, who have been named, and for the company itself.

In the Italian justice system, a judge now has to rule on whether or not to take the charges forward.

However, Global Witness, a campaign group providing evidence to the prosecution, says its lawyers have recommended that this request is the equivalent of charging. read more

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.

OPL 245: SHELL SPY TALK

By John Donovan

Fascinating to read email correspondence between former MI6 officers John Copleston and Guy Colegate hired by Shell to assist in dodgy oil deals involving sinister players.

Common-sense suggests that their expensive specialist skills would not be needed for any straightforward honest business activity.

John Copleston was identified as a Strategic Investment Advisor for Shell Exploration & Production Africa Limited. One of the individuals described by Ben van Beurden as former MI6 people hired by Shell.  read more

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.

Shell executives charged in lead up to landmark trial over billion dollar Nigerian bribery scheme

Sunday 15 October 2017

Senior Royal Dutch Shell executives have been charged in Italy for their role in a vast bribery scheme that deprived the Nigerian people of over a billion dollars, the Milan Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed on Friday. Those facing trial include Malcolm Brinded CBE, the second most powerful person in the company when the deal was struck (1). Shell itself is also facing bribery charges alongside the four named individuals.

Malcolm Brinded Charged

This historic decision follows a dramatic U-turn in which it admitted that it knew its billion dollar payment would go to convicted money-launderer and former Nigerian oil minister, Dan Etete, in exchange for Nigerian oil block OPL 245 in 2011. read more

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.

Is Eni even more corrupt than Shell?

It seems unlikely, given Shell’s appalling track record, but in view of the latest news that a corruption probe of Eni now includes its dealings in several countries around the globe, it may be the case that Eni is indeed even more corrupt than its OPL 245 partner-in-crime, Royal Dutch Shell. 

Malcolm Brinded, who played a key role for Shell in the OPL 245 skullduggery, remains at large and a director of the Shell Foundation. I suppose they have to keep him on a payroll to make sure he does not turn on his colleagues, including former MI6 spooks employed by Shell, John Copleston and Guy Colgate.  read more

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.

Shell Money Laundering for Saudi Arabia

Once again the conspiracy involved a shadowy man associated with Shell, said to be an MI6 agent. Not John Copleston or Guy Colgate of OPL 245 fame, but a spy from an earlier generation of British spooks – Stephan Kock – reportedly responsible for ordering assassinations.

By John Donovan

As has been widely reported, Shell and former/current senior managers up to executive director level face criminal charges in connection with the OPL 245 corruption scandal. Apart from other issues, Shell is accused of money laundering along with Eni. If found guilty, there is no prospect of Shell reducing any penalty by pleading it’s a first offence, because that is not the case. 

In the 1980’s, Shell and BP played a money-laundering role in the Al-Yamamah project generating slush funds associated with Saudi arms contracts which helped to fund terrorism and corruption, including massive bribes to Saudi royals by the main contractor, BAe Systems. read more

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.

Role of a hapless Ann Pickard in OPL 245

By John Donovan

During the period that Shell was conniving in setting up the OPL 245 deal, the company had a vice-like grip on the oil wealth of Nigeria and more power than the Nigerian government. This information comes from an analysis of leaked secret US embassy cables.

Ann Pickard, a then senior Shell executive, was directly involved in the OPL 245 deal, and the primary indiscreet source of the secret information.

Extracts below from various publications provide evidence of her role in OPL 245. They are followed by astonishing related extracts from a Guardian newspaper article about the leaked classified cables. read more

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.

More analysis of wiretapped BvB/Simon Henry phone call

By Bill Campbell (Retired HSE Group Auditor Shell International)

I have read through the Ben van Beurden/Simon Henry phone transcript but frankly cannot understand the apparently relaxed attitude, with many chuckles and laughter on the phone.

It seems clear also that RDS had been or were still pursuing some kind of internal investigation into the matter.

They raised but then thought lightly it would seem, of the emails that are incriminating, as though these did not involve their own employees whether direct or indirect, ex MI6 etc. read more

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.

OPL 245: Bernardus Cornelis Adriana Margriet Van Beurden

Extracts from Milan Prosecutors letter relating to Royal Dutch Shell and its current/former executives and employees.

Notification of completion of preliminary investigations Art. 415-bis of the Italian Code of Criminal Procedure The Public Prosecutor, having regard to the above criminal proceedings against

Royal Dutch Shell PLC with registered office in The Hague (Netherlands), at Carel Van Bylandtlaan, 30 legal representative pro tempore: Bernardus Cornelis Adriana Margriet Van Beurden, born in Roosendaal en Nispen on 23 April 1958 Defended by the lawyer Bruno Lorenzo Cova of the Court of Turin, and by the lawyer Francesca Petronio of the Court of Milan, with chambers at in Milan, Via Rovello, 1 With address for service at the Paul Hastings (Europe) LLP law firm in Milan, at Via Rovello, 1 for the crimes and administrative offences listed below: read more

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.

OPL 245: Shell email intercepts

By John Donovan

It is plain from these extensive Shell internal emails that Malcolm Brinded was indeed the key Shell player in the OPL 245 deal. They provide an indication of why the Italian Prosecutors are apparently intending to bring charges against him. What a shame that Shell ignored all of my warnings over many years about his lack of scruples. 

Note the involvement of former MI6 agents hired by Shell – Guy Colgate and John Copleston, also up to their necks in the OPL 245 investigation by authorities in a number of countries including the USA, the UK, Italy and the Netherlands. read more

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.

New leaked emails put Shell at centre of billion dollar bribery scheme…

READ ATTACHED SENSATIONAL 12 PAGE DOCUMENT INCLUDING SHELL INTERNAL EMAILS FROM SHELL’S FORMER MI6 AGENTS

By Barnaby Pace

Oil giants Shell and Eni knowingly participated in a vast bribery scheme for one of Africa’s most valuable oil blocks which deprived Nigeria and its people of $1.1billion, an exposé by Global Witness and Finance Uncovered reveals today.

New, leaked internal emails seen by Global Witness and Finance Uncovered show that Shell’s most senior decision-makers knew that the money they paid for oil block OPL 245 in 2011 would go to convicted money launderer and ex-Nigerian oil minister Dan Etete – rather than to benefit the Nigerian people. read more

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.
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