The untimely death of Mr James G. Wood, tenacious litigant against Shell

By John Donovan

The following comment, which appears to be authentic,  has been posted on our article “Shell Springboard: Is it safe to disclose your idea to Shell?”

John Ricketts on May 12th, 2019 at 08:59 

Do you have more information on James Wood’s untimely death?

A friend From Magdalene College, Cambridge.

The question presumably stems from the following paragraph in the article:

Shell has also been sued in more recent years in the USA and the Netherlands by James G. Wood of Preda Consultants (Deep Water Slender Wells) for “alleged misappropriation of the plaintiffs alleged oilfield-technology trade secrets“. As far as I am aware, the litigation ended in 2016 after the untimely death of Mr. Wood, a man of the highest integrity and reputation. read more

Runar Kjørsvik was the chief safety officer at the Shell Nyhamna Gas facility until he was fired. Bjørn Tore Røshol took over the office. Both struggle with the psychological after-effects of a culture of fear at the facility. Their stories are quite similar. 

English translation of an article published by Stavanger Aftenblad on 11 May 2019.

Shell safety delegates ended up in a psychiatric ward. They tried to clean up Shell. They ended up with psychiatric chaos in their heads.

Foreign Skarsaune: JOURNALIST
Jon Ingemundsen: PHOTOGRAPH UPDATED: PUBLISHED: 11 MAY 2019 07:41

In the corner of the waiting room are two men. The chair between them is empty. It is quiet at the psychiatric outpatient clinic in Molde.

Bjørn Tore Røshol, left, and Runar Kjørsvik is sitting in the waiting room at the district psychiatric center in Molde. Photo: JON INGEMUNDSEN

They go here regularly. That they have hour at the same time this day is random. But that they are here, they think is not random. Both have been the main safety delegate at Shell’s gas facility at Nyhamna outside Molde. Both struggle with psychological after-effects. Their stories are quite similar: read more

Nigeria could seek as much as $3.5 billion in damages from Royal Dutch Shell and Eni over an allegedly corrupt deal for one of Africa’s biggest untapped oilfields.

The Federal Republic of Nigeria has filed a claim in the High Court in London against the two oil companies over the deal in which they acquired the OPL 245 oil licence for $1.3 billion. It alleges that the deal was corrupt and resulted in Nigeria receiving “no or negligible value” for rights to the “extremely valuable” offshore licence, which it estimates was in fact worth “at least $3.5 billion”. 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

Esther Kiobel and John Donovan: Colchester UK: 28 April 2019

By John Donovan

I was delighted to welcome Esther Kiobel to my families Colchester home yesterday.

Esther and I have each been engaged for decades in our respective much-publicised epic litigation battles with Shell.

For over 22 years, Esther has been seeking justice for the alleged complicity by Shell in the murder of her beloved husband Dr Barinem Kiobel, executed with eight other Nigerian Ogoni rights campaigners, including Ken Saro-Wiwa – collectively known as the “Ogoni Nine“. read more

English translation of an article published by Dutch newspaper ncr.nl on 26 March 2019. The extensive parts of the article relating to Ben van Burden and Shell are in bold print. 

Are top managers being bugged?

White collar, dirty hands? You don’t have to be a suspect of cocaine smuggling in the Netherlands to be overheard by the judiciary. In recent years, the telephones of at least two board chairmen have been tapped. Maybe even more. They never put such information in an annual report.

The first was Theo Bruijninckx, chairman of the board of the then already financially weakened construction company Ballast Nedam. In the spring of 2012, he was intercepted on various telephones (home, mobile, at the office). He was not a suspect, but justice was looking for information about an older bribery case. Ballast Nedam was taken over by the Turkish conglomerate Rönesans after a series of losses in 2015. read more

By John Donovan

Shell internal email communications obtained from Shell under the UK Data Protection Act 1998 provide proof of Shell’s intent to “kill” news coverage of John Donovan and his website, royaldutchshellplc.com.

Please read this Shell internal email about a half page news article written by then Sunday Times journalist Steven Swinford. It clearly indicates Shell’s intent to “kill” the article.

The article was about my intervention in the Sakhalin 2 project, which cost Shell its majority stake in the venture. Although the entire article was read to me over the phone by Steven Swinford hours before it was due to be published, it never appeared. read more

In brief

*The number of accidents per man-hour worked has risen again for the first time in a long time last year.

*A series of incidents, criminal investigations and warnings from regulators are damaging Shell’s safety image.

*Shell CEO Van Beurden himself is also not satisfied and wants to do more to guarantee safety.

Printed below is an English translation of an article published today by the Dutch Financial Times, Financieele Dagblad.

Beeld: Getty Images/ bewerking: FD Studio

Shells gas leaks, fires and accidents

Bert van Dijk: 13 March 2019

Last year the number of accidents per hour worked increased at the oil company. Supervisors warn that Shell needs to do more about safety.

In December 2017, during regular maintenance work, a lifeboat suddenly came loose on the Shell platform Brent Alpha in the North Sea. The lifeboat fell into the sea and was recovered a day later. Although no one is injured, it was not the first time. In 2008, it was discovered that two lifeboats on another nearby Shell platform, Brent Bravo, were technically in such poor condition that they had to be replaced. And in 2007 a rescue boat on another Shell platform broke loose and collapsed into the sea. read more

By John Donovan

Shell internal email correspondence relating to the OPL 245 oil deal has been very revealing and may seal the fate of defendants in the Italian trial, including the former MI6 people hired by Shell. Their names, Guy Colgate and John Copleston, appeared on the emails. read more

By John Donovan

Printed below are extracts from Shell’s Annual Report and Form 20-F 2016 relating to the OPL 245 corruption scandal. Shell confirmed that authorities “in various countries” are investigating its investment in Nigerian Oil Block OPL 245. 

Page 15

Authorities in various countries are investigating our investment in Nigerian oil block OPL 245 and the 2011 settlement of litigation pertaining to that block. On January 27, 2017, the Nigeria Federal High Court issued an Interim Order of Attachment for oil block OPL 245, pending the conclusion of the investigation. Shell has applied to discharge this order on constitutional and procedural grounds. On February 14, 2017, we received notice of the request of indictment from the Italian prosecution office in Milan with respect to this matter. read more

Between November 2015 and January 2016, 380 kilos of the carcinogenic substance ethylene oxide went into the air every day. Justice now states that Shell has not taken enough measures to prevent such accidents: “By acting in this way they have put workers and people in the environment in danger,” according to the Public Prosecution Service.

English translation of an article published in Dutch by nrc.nl earlier today

Justice summons Shell for explosion and leakage in Moerdijk

In 2014, two people were injured in a fire. Two years later, a Shell plant leaked carcinogens.

Maartje Geels: 1 March 2019

The fire in 2014 at a Shell complex on an industrial estate in Moerdijk was then seen in Rotterdam. Photo GinoPress / ANP

The Public Prosecution Service (OM) is suing Shell for an explosion and a leak at a complex of the oil and gas company in Moerdijk. This confirms justice Friday in response to reports from Het FD. Earlier on Friday, it was also announced that Shell is being prosecuted for corruption in Nigeria. read more

BY JOHN DONOVAN

I am interested in contacting the author of the buyer review below by a verified purchaser of my EBook available on Amazon.com and many other Amazon sites. The five-star review has only just been brought to my attention.

I would like to know more about the background to the serious allegations made against Shell Oil Company.

BUYER REVIEW OF MY EBOOK

Very Interesting Read. Highly Recommend!

This company’s unsafe practices caused the explosion and death of my father that left a total of 10 children without fathers. They used fraud, coverup, lies and deception and even refused to pay my family Workers Compensation or my father’s funeral. This book has let me know that Shell Oil Company has ruined so many other people’s lives and has no limit on how far they will go to save money and hurt people. read more

REUTERS REPORT ON ROYALDUTCHSHELLPLC.COM WEBSITE

The website, which Donovan said receives 2 million hits a month, has also featured attacks on Shell’s safety and environmental record.

Most of the vast reams of information and news reports on the site is unflattering about Shell, whose market capitalisation tops $182 billion.

Another email seen by Reuters, apparently from a Shell communications representative to U.S. news network Fox News said: “royaldutchshellplc.com is an excellent source of group news and comment and I recommend it far above what our own group internal comms puts out”. read more

Former Shell CEO Peter Voser is an unlucky man. He had the incredible misfortune to be in charge of the bad guys at both corporate giants, Shell and UBS Bank simultaneously, while presumably being personally innocent of any criminal acts? What are the chances of that happening? The question of managerial negligence, twice-over, must surely be another matter?

By John Donovan

Printed below is an article published yesterday by BBC News reporting that the “Swiss banking giant UBS has been fined €3.7bn (£3.2bn; $4.2bn) in a French tax fraud case.”

The article goes on to say that “Following similar cases in the US in 2009 and Germany in 2014, the bank accepted large fines.”

During the period of criminal activity the then Chief Executive Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc – Peter Voser – was paid millions of Swiss francs in his role as a director of UBS AG. He was also a member of the governance and nominating committee and of the strategy committee. read more

Esther Kiobel poses with a picture of her late husband, one of nine men executed by Nigeria’s military government after a peaceful uprising against Shell in 1995. Photograph: Amnesty International

By John Donovan

I heard from a major news organisation that Esther Kiobel brought up my name several times during an interview at the Dutch court hearing yesterday, kindly expressing her thanks for my help.

Esther approached me after the US Supreme Court decision that thwarted on jurisdiction grounds her attempts to sue Shell in the USA for complicity in the murder of her husband, Dr Barinem Kiobel. It took over a decade of litigation to arrive at that decision. read more

By John Donovan

I became aware today of a letter (see below) which a director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre sent to Royal Dutch Shell CEO Ben van Beurden on 5 February 2015. The communication stemmed from my campaigning activities that ended with Allseas renaming the worlds largest ship. I will shortly be supplying the Simon Wiesenthal Centre with a trove of evidence about Shell’s Nazi history including its close partnership in Nazi Germany with IG Farben, the chemical giant which manufactured the gas used to exterminate several million Jewish people in the Holocaust. Dutch Directors of the Royal Dutch Shell Group including Sir Henri Deterding helped finance Hitler and the Nazi Party.

SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTRE – EUROPE

Tel. +33-147237637 – Fax: +33-147208401

E-mail: [email protected]

“Annul Shell’s dealings with Allseas – a company which apparently celebrates Nazi crimes by glorifying a perpetrator”

“It is interesting to note on the Shell portals’ list of associated countries, the conspicuous absence of Israel”

Paris, 5 February 2015

In a letter to Royal Dutch Shell CEO, Ben van Beurdon, the Simon Wiesenthal Centre Director for International Relations, Dr. Shimon Samuels, noted, “Shell has contracted from the Swiss-based offshore pipeline installation and subsea construction company, Allseas Group, their crane-ship Pieter Schelte, to service Brent oil platforms on the British continental shelf.” read more