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Shell buys Brinded’s silence in golden good riddance

Screen Shot 2013-03-17 at 16.08.38In addition to the £2.9m for his Netherlands home, “Brinded, 60 tomorrow, pocketed £2.7 in salary and severance for the four months he worked last year. He also walked away with £9.7m in shares and a £19m pension pot.” So, with wonderful timing, Brinded received a package worth £34.3 million as a spectacular birthday present.

By John Donovan

The Sunday Times published an article today by Danny Fortson on the front page of its business section, under the headline: Shell buys chief’s £2.9m home in golden goodbye

I believe our headline is more accurate.

The sacked “Chief” who is the beneficiary of Shell’s immense generosity with shareholders money is Malcolm Brinded, forever associated with Shell’s notorious “Touch Fuck All” approach to its North Sea Platforms and the safety of its offshore workers.

Brinded, the head of Exploration & Production, was the king of Over-promise and Under-delivery.

The article describes his severance package as being “extraordinary”. That is an understatement.

In addition to the £2.9m for his Netherlands home, “Brinded, 60 tomorrow, pocketed £2.7 in salary and severance for the four months he worked last year. He also walked away with £9.7m in shares and a £19m pension pot.”

So, with wonderful timing, Brinded received a package worth £34.3 million as a spectacular birthday present.

Is this because, as Shell claims in the article: Malcom Brinded had a most distinguished career over many years and made an important contribution to Shell’s success during that time.”

Or, was this stupendous package conjured up to buy his silence, given (1) his role in the aforementioned “Touch Fuck All” Brent Bravo scandal, which cost the lives of innocent workers and (2) the cover-up and aftermath of the reserves fraud scandal . It is a safe assumption that Brinded is bound by a confidentiality agreement.

The upshot of all the machinations is that shareholders have to pick up the tab for dishonesty, incompetence, negligence and subsequently making sure that one of the main culprits keeps his mouth shut. 

Shell has for a long time been in a difficult position in relation to Brinded. For example, it has been unable to defend him in regard to my article published some years ago, under the headline “Royal Dutch Shell Fat Cat Malcolm Brinded: Big Brain but no scruples”. The article has now been read over 22,000 times. There is no defamation when what is stated is true.

Once more failure is rewarded with a big payoff. Brinded is receiving even more than his disgraced former boss, The Rev. Sir Philip Watts, who missed out on being made Pope, perhaps because he chose the wrong religion.

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Extract

He had relocated to the Netherlands in 2002 and bought a house for €3.4m. After deciding to step down from his role Mr Brinded put the house on the market. When no buyers emerged, Shell agreed to purchase it – for €2.4m, the average of three independent valuations – and also compensate him for the loss in value of the house, some €992,199. The unique arrangement had been written into Mr Brinded’s contract…

Shell stumps up £850,000 to pay ex-boss for housing loss: cityam

Extract

The generous deal is likely to stoke further concerns about Shell’s pay practices, which prompted a shareholder backlash last year when votes against executive pay rose to nine per cent at its annual meeting.

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