Posts under ‘Ian McCredie’

By John Donovan

The falling out of Hall & Oaks…

This article is about litigation and controversy involving the head of Shell Global Corporate Affairs Security, James W.D. Hall and a succession of his accusers, starting with the Security Manager for Shell Oil Company, Crockett Oaks III. 

The lawyers involved in the litigation have gone to great lengths to keep certain information from reaching the public, Shell shareholders and Shell employees.

So much for Shell directors solemn pledge of openness and honesty in all of Shell’s dealings. Apparently, that does not apply to court proceedings. Shell is more interested in maintaining confidentiality about high-level skullduggery. I think it’s called a cover-up.  read more

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By John Donovan

I have published several articles over the years naming many Shell senior security people. They include the MI6 hires referred to by Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden in a wiretapped telephone conversation relating to the OPL 245 corruption case. 

Some of their names have come up in leaked emails that have recently appeared on the Internet. I have combined the various emails into a single document.

The email participants include a former senior British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) officer, Ian Forbes McCredie who until December 2010, was VP Corporate Affairs Security, Shell International B.V.  Mr McCredie is closely associated with the private spy firm Hakluyt sometimes described as the commercial offshoot of MI6. When I sent an email to Mr McCredie at Shell, I received an automated response giving me his Hakluyt email address. read more

Esther Kiobel and John Donovan, 28 April 2019, days before a Dutch court ruled in favour of Esther and her co-plaintiffs in an action against Shell allowing their case to proceed

By John Donovan

In 1996, Shell used the sinister specialist services of what could be described as an in-house spying resource set up by former MI6 officers, Hakluyt & Company Limited with titled Shell directors acting as the ultimate spymasters.

At that time, Sir William Purves was Chairman of Hakluyt & Company Limited and Sir Peter Holmes, a former Chairman of Shell, was President of the Hakluyt Foundation. Both were also major shareholders in the corporate spy outfit, while also being Shell directors.

Hakluyt was allegedly set up to carry out “deniable” corporate espionage operations.

A German-born secret service agent Manfred Schlickenrieder working undercover for Hakluyt was sent to Nigeria on a mission relating to allegations of environmental damage caused by Shell’s oil drilling in Ogoniland.

Extracts from a related front-page article published by The Sunday Times in 2001 under the headline MI6 ‘Firm’ Spied on Green Groups:

Schlickenrieder sometimes posed as a left-wing sympathizer and documentary filmmaker.

He also tried to dupe Anita Roddick’s Body Shop group to pass on information about its opposition to Shell drilling for oil in a Nigerian tribal land.

His company was a one-man band with a video camera making rarely seen documentaries.

He made a film on Shell in Nigeria called Business as Usual: the Arrogance of Power, during which he interviewed friends of Ken Saro-Wiwa, the Nobel prize nominee, who was hanged by the military regime in 1995 after leading a campaign against oil exploration. Schlickenrieder sent a letter to a Body Shop executive saying he had been researching the activities of Shell in Nigeria…

Fouad Hamdan, communications director of Greenpeace Germany, said: “The bastard was good, I have to admit. “He got information about our planned Atlantic Frontier campaign…”  He added: “Manfred filmed and interviewed all the time…”

The Sunday Times article is short on dates and information about what Shell’s undercover agent was up to in Nigeria, but it was at a time when litigation was being contemplated against Shell by relatives of Ken Saro Wiwi and Ogoni Nine widows.

Perhaps information about the purpose and timing of his spying mission in Nigeria will be contained in the confidential Shell internal documents the Dutch Court has ordered to be handed over to Esther Kiobel and her co-plaintiffs. Sight of his briefing by Shell/Hakluyt could be very revealing.

Part of the Kiobel & Co Dutch case against Shell relates to alleged Shell bribing of witnesses in the Ogoni Nine trial, which ended with the hanging of all nine individuals, including Ken Saro-Wiwi and the beloved husband of Esther Kiobel, Dr Barinem Kiobel.

Salient extracts from the Wikipedia article “Ogoni Nine”

The executions provoked international condemnation and led to the increasing treatment of Nigeria as a pariah state…

At least two witnesses who testified that Saro-Wiwa was involved in the murders of the Ogoni elders later recanted, stating that they had been bribed with money and offers of jobs with Shell to give false testimony – in the presence of Shell’s lawyer.

Shell’s close association with former MI6 people has continued through the years. They always seem to be lurking in the shadows.

I am in possession of irrefutable evidence that an ex MI6 man Ian Forbes McCredie,  hired by Shell to be head of Shell Global Security, was also part of Hakluyt & Company.

More recently, Ben van Beurden, the current Chief Executive of Royal Dutch Shell Plc mentioned in a telephone conversation that Shell had hired former MI6 people in connection with the OPL 245 oil deal. He did not know that the conversation was being covertly recorded by OPL 245 investigative authorities.

Two of the defendants in the current OPL 245 criminal $1.3bn  corruption trial against Shell in Italy are indeed former MI6 agents; namely John Copleston and Guy Colegate.

Would someone kindly explain how any of this sinister and unscrupulous activity is compatible with Shell’s claimed core business principles, including honesty, integrity and transparency?

ARTICLE ENDS

Disclosure by the author of this article: The lead claimant Esther Kiobel, her lawyer Channa Samkalden of the Dutch human rights law firm Prakken d’Oliveira representing the widows, and the acclaimed human rights organisation Amnesty International, have all acknowledged the involvement of John Donovan in bringing *this case. (*See Writ of Summons in English and Dutch served on Shell 28 June 2017 – copy obtained from US Pacer public electronic court records) As Esther generously said on 28 April 2019, the Dutch case would not have happened without the help of John Donovan.  read more

Emails exchanged between senior Shell staff including John Copleston and Guy Colegate show they knew a massive payment would go to convicted money launderer and former oil minister Dan Etete.

UPDATED SUNDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2018

By John Donovan

During a wiretapped telephone conversation held on 17 February 2016 between Royal Dutch Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden and Simon Henry, his then CFO, BvB made reference to what he described as “really unhelpful emails” relating to the Shell/Eni Nigerian corruption scandal.

The call took place hours after Shell’s HQ building in The Hague was raided by authorities investigating the OPL 245 Nigerian oil deal. Two middle men have already been found guilty of involvement in the $1.3 billion corruption scandal. read more

Guardian Newspaper article 5 November 2015

Extracts from the ebook “John Donovan, Shell’s Nightmare” (now available on Amazon websites globally)

The extract below makes a reference to “Mr Hoots”, an American associated with the U.S. Intelligence community who became involved in the Shell/Donovan litigation, while falsely claiming to be on a journalistic assignment on behalf of Business Week magazine. It seemed obvious from his extensive activities on the case that an unknown party with very deep pockets was funding his false flag mission.

Extracts from pages 108 & 109

Mr. Hoots came to the UK specifically to gather information about my case against Shell and incurred substantial costs. He never approached Shell to find out their side of the story, only my solicitor, my witnesses and me. He never published an article. He used false pretences when speaking to all of us and gained access to an array of documents. I later found out that his modus operandi was entirely in keeping with the common method of operation by undercover agents engaged in corporate espionage. read more

Extract from the ebook “John Donovan, Shell’s Nightmare” (now available on Amazon websites globally)

(BACKGROUND INFORMATION ABOUT SHELL’S EPIC 25 YEAR FEUD WITH JOHN DONOVAN – which puts the extracts below in overall context.)

The extract below should be read in the context of the fact that we were besieged by undercover activity during the run-up to the SMART High Court Trial – the climax of our litigation alleging that Shell had stolen Intellectual Property from our company Don Marketing. Shell brought a Counterclaim amid a barrage of aggressive threats and sinister activity directed against us. Shell did not disclose its close connection with a private spy firm Hakluyt & Company populated by former senior MI6 officers (such as Ian Forbes McCredie and other retired or freelance spooks). As Shell CEO Ben van Beurden mentioned in an illuminating wire-tapped telephone conversation with then CFO Simon Henry, Shell hired such MI6 people including Guy Colegate and John Copleston to negotiate with Dan Etete in the corrupt OPL 245 Nigerian oil deal. Both “people” are now defendants in a criminal action brought in Italy.

Extracts below from pages 108

IAN FORBES MCCREDIE CMG OBE

A former senior British Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) officer, Ian Forbes McCredie was, until December 2010, Vice President of Corporate Security for Royal Dutch Shell aka Shell Corporate Affairs Security (CAS).

Mr. McCredie is closely associated with Hakluyt. When I sent an email to him at Shell, I received a response from his Hakluyt email address.

His spook duties at Shell were listed in his CV published online (as of October 2015). See center box.

A retired senior FBI official, Richard T. Garcia, was Global Security Manager for Shell Americas. read more

Of particular concern to Shell, the author provides first-hand insight into Shell’s security and intelligence activities in Nigeria, Iraq, Iran, Ireland and other global hot spots and details how Shell worked with US, UK and Dutch Intelligence and military agencies to further their mutual agendas.  The author also discusses Shell’s secret communications with MEND militants in Nigeria through intermediaries. 

By John Donovan 

I suspect that Shell in particular, should be very concerned about a book in the pipeline called “CRUDE INTENTION”. I say this because the author is a former senior manager of Shell Global Security. 

Unlike the MI6 “people” hired by Shell including Guy Colegate, John Copleston and Ian Forbes McCredie, and the FBI officials recruited for their government connections like former FBI Deputy Director Richard Garcia, the author is a career security & business professional in the oil & gas industry whose own principles and ethics often conflicted those of his spymaster bosses and coworkers; including the monitoring of our activities as part of a Shell global surveillance operation.  read more

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

Introduction by John Donovan

Published below are comments by Mr Bill Campbell, the retired HSE Group Auditor of Royal Dutch Shell. His remarks are in relation to the involvement of Shell and current?/former MI6 officers in the OPL 245 skulduggery currently involving multiple regulatory and legal authorities, including the Dutch Director of Public Prosecution and Dutch Police, the UK Serious Fraud Office, Italian and Nigerian Police and Prosecutors, the US Securities And Exchange Commission, and an investigation by the US Department of Justice under The Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. read more

A new name, Ian McCredie – another former MI6 spy who once worked for Shell – has popped up in an article about the Nigerian OPL 245 corruption scandal engulfing Shell and ENI. See: How Shell used former British spies to gather intelligence while negotiating purchase of OPL 245

The article says in relation to the Malabu oil scam, that Shell set up an intelligence network made up of some of Europe’s top spies. Former British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) agents, including Guy Colegate and John Copleston, are identified as members of the Shell Intelligence Network Committee (SINC) “set up by Ian McCredie, a respected spy.”  The article goes on to say that there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by him. read more

By John Donovan

The name of the former head of Shell Global Security Ian McCredie was briefly mentioned earlier this week in a news article published in Nigeria. Readers can guess the subject of the article. 

McCredie is said to have set up a network of former MI6 spies inside Shell Global Security.

Those named so far as being members of SINC – Security Information Network Centre – are Guy Colegate, John Copleston, and Ian McCredie. All worked for Shell. All are former MI6 agents. read more