In his testimony, Ferri described the high points of the investigation, which included working with agents from the Metropolitan Police in London, U.S. authorities and Dutch police. His testimony touched on wiretaps, a raid on Shell headquarters in the Netherlands and tracing money transfers from Great Britain to Nigeria ..facing charges are Malcolm Brinded, former chief exploration director at Shell, and Peter Robinson, a former vice president for sub-Saharan Africa at Shell.
CASTELBUONO, Sicily (CN) — A massive corruption trial in Milan involving Royal Dutch Shell, Italy-based Eni and a lucrative offshore Nigerian oil field is underway.
The court heard the first testimony in the case Wednesday and Friday. More hearings are scheduled until the end of October.
The trial centers on allegations of a sprawling $1.3 billion bribery deal that involved Royal Dutch Shell Plc. and Italy-based Eni S.p.A. executives. The oil giants allegedly worked out a corrupt deal with Nigerian officials, including then-President Goodluck Jonathan, to buy a much-coveted oilfield off the coast of Nigeria, known as OPL 245.read more
Brinded’s reaction to the devastating findings and recommendations of the Campbell led review was to shoot the messenger, namely, Bill Campbell. Brinded chose to ignore the stunning findings by the audit team and the recommendations made by its leader Mr. Campbell in relation to the Asset Manager. Instead, Brinded supported the mentally unhinged “foaming at the mouth” Asset Manager who was able to return to his tyrannical TFA regime shortly thereafter, despite his instability. Compared with him, Captain Bligh was a sweetie. The inevitable fatal outcome accurately foretold in the review, resulted from the ruthless, unprincipled criminal decision by Brinded to put production before safety. Astonishing stuff bearing in mind that the Asset Manager repeatedly blamed “his master” Brinded, who he colourfully described as a “bastard”
SHELL HAD ADVANCE SIGHT OF THIS ARTICLE AND ATTACHMENT, AND THEREFORE THE OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE LEGAL ACTION TO PREVENT PUBLICATION. THE SAME APPLIES TO BARONESS HELEN LIDDELL
LINK: THE PLATFORM SAFETY MANAGEMENT “STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL” REVIEW NOTES IN WHICH ALL OF THE INFORMATION BELOW, AND MUCH MORE, CAN BE SEEN IN JAW-DROPPING CONTEXT
By John Donovan
In November last year the brother of Keith Moncrieff, one of two workers who in 2003 tragically died in an accident on the Shell Brent Bravo North Sea oil platform, sent a heart-rending letter to Royal Dutch Shell Plc Chairman Charles Holliday.
He pleaded for help in bringing “these evil men to justice” – a reference to the Shell executives and officials he now knows were responsible for what the Scottish courts determined were “avoidable deaths“. As far as I am aware, no reply was forthcoming. Not even the courtesy of an acknowledgment. (UPDATED 3 Oct 2018 PM: IN FACT MR HOLLIDAY DID REPLY AND DID OFFER HIS CONDOLENCES – SEE THE BOLD BLUE TEXT FURTHER DOWN)read more
THE DYNAMITE SHELL INTERNAL DOCUMENT THAT ESCAPED THE SHREDDER
By John Donovan
Printed below is an email I sent yesterday to Shell and Baroness Helen Liddell.
At noon tomorrow, I intend to publish a Shell “STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL” internal document comprising mainly of audit notes.
The content is possibly the most damaging to Shell’s reputation that has ever existed in one document. It had vanished from a secure Shell vault in dubious circumstances when Shell’s chief auditor tried to retrieve it.
I first found out about its existence just days ago and have a copy which escaped the shredder. I hold proof of authenticity.read more
In Ogoniland, Shell has polluted the land, turning it into a wasteland, destroying the people’s livelihoods and insisting on not compensating the people for the losses.
By Fegalo Nsuke
It’s barely two months to the twenty third memorial of nine Ogonis killed for Shell by the Nigerian authorities on November 10, 1995. This evil Enterprise we call Shell has stopped at nothing to push forward it’s brutally against the Ogoni people.
A few weeks ago, we – the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP) called for investigations into the cases of harassment against Ogoni women in Gokana by soldiers attached to Shell workers currently laying pipelines in Ogoniland. And more recently, the cases of Doodealo and Dr Nwosu, both researchers who were brutally manhandled by the same soldiers while they attempted to take samples for soil tests in Ogoniland.
At this moment, the Nigerian authorities have not acted in any way to protect our women from further abuses nor have they commissioned any probe into these cases.
In their response to the harassment of women, Shell claimed that the soldiers do not take instructions from them. But the fact remains that Shell invited the soldiers in their desperation to return to oil production in Ogoniland without any broad-based discussions with the people and therefore cannot deny responsibility for the crimes.
Shell in Nigeria is inhuman and a Shame. Its conduct in Nigeria is despicable and an ugly representation of today’s business community. With her overwhelming influence on the Nigerian government, Shell has taken advantage of our country to inflict monumental pain on our people, abusing citizen’s rights and has also devised a way of evading justice for the people.
In Ogoniland, Shell has polluted the land, turning it into a wasteland, destroying the people’s livelihoods and insisting on not compensating the people for the losses. Fully aware of the discriminatory laws under which Nigeria operates, the very laws that threaten the existence of resource-based communities like the Ogoni, Shell has completely abandoned their social responsibilities and has instead divided the people against each other just to maintain it’s dominance and deprive the people of every voice that can announce their oppression to the knowledge of the world.
Shell has prosecuted the war on Ogoni with every resource available to it, exploiting the people’s weaknesses especially the discriminatory laws that has deprived the Ogoni people their rightful place in our country. Rather than helping to build a progressive and prosperous host Community, Shell is comfortable with the current system that allows the company do what it dares not to do in Europe. After taking over 100 billion dollars worth of oil from Ogoni, a company like Shell which doesn’t use her conscience continues to act indifferently even as it’s Pollutions in Ogoni sadly and currently kills over 200 Ogonis every week.
Shell does not feel bothered that people’s livelihoods have been destroyed and they deserve to be compensated. Shell cannot claim to be ignorant about the fact that their cannot be remediation without compensation for damages.
But Shell must pay for her crimes in Ogoniland. It does not matter the strength of the Nigerian armies, Ogoni will not surrender to murderers like Shell nor shall we surrender to the discriminatory laws of Nigeria which threaten our survival.
We demand justice for the Ogoni people of Nigeria. We demand political rights to self determination, we demand the rights to a respectable and dignified living. These rights are currently enjoyed by other groups in Nigeria who take away Ogoni resources and share among themselves leaving Ogoni with nothing but the pain and sad consequences of revenue generation; we demand the review of the death sentences passed on nine innocent Ogonis during the regime of General Sani Abacha in 1995; we demand the payment of compensation by Shell for the destruction of livelihoods by oil spills from the company’s reckless oil mining business in Ogoniland since 1958, and an adequate funding for the cleanup and restoration of Ogoniland.
These demands are justifiable, legitimate and do conform with the ideals of the founding fathers of our country. We state categorically that as a people, we shall not compromise on our rights nor shall we relent on our demands for fairness and justice as contained in the Ogoni Bill of Rights.
This post is written by Fegalo Nsuke, publicly secretary of the Movement for the Survival of the Ogoni People (MOSOP). He wrote from Bori, Ogoniland.
Disclaimer
The views, information, allegations or opinions expressed above are those of the author/originator of the article. They have not been substantiated by the publisher of this website and may not represent the publishers views.read more
LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell pioneered Nigeria’s oil and gas industry and remains a major investor in the West African country. But over the decades it has come under fire over spills in the Delta region and struggles with oil theft, corruption and oil-fueled violence.
Following are some of the highlights of Shell’s history in Nigeria:
1936 – The Royal Dutch Shell Group establishes a Nigerian venture with the precursor company of BP Plc. The first shipment of oil from Nigeria takes place in 1958.read more
Malcolm Brinded,President of the Energy Institute, the most corrupt person in modern history to ever occupy a boardroom seat in the Shell organisation
By Bill Campbell, Retired HSE Group Auditor, Shell International
Up until yesterday we, and the World, speculated that the purchase of the Nigerian oil field was done corruptly, now ipso facto, it has been established corrupt by legal process.
No more speculation is needed.
So however hard Shell polish this turd they were involved, very involved, in a deal that is now fully established as corrupt and it is more than probable, it may take some time, that Brinded and Robinson, if the latter doesn’t get easement for cooperation with the court, will face custodial sentences measured in years. read more
Thursday, September 20, 2018 19.36PM / By Global Witness
Conviction in middlemen’s fast-tracked OPL 245 trial a poor omen for Shell and Eni’s defence just days before major bribery trial hears first prosecution witnesses.
Today two middlemen have been found guilty of corruption offences relating to Shell and Eni’s 2011 deal for one of Nigeria’s most promising oil licenses. The judgement was first reported by Reuters who cited a legal source.
The two middlemen Emeka Obi and Gianluca Di Nardo have been sentenced to four years jail time and confiscations of over €100 million. The pair had opted for a fast tracked trial for their role in the deal. The fast track process in Italian law offers a possible reduction in any sentence. A larger trial including Shell, Eni and 13 other defendants is ongoing. The prosecution will start presenting their evidence next Wednesday.read more
…this judgment will send shivers down the corporate spines of the oil industry – and will surely alarm Shell and Eni employees and shareholders who have been repeatedly told that there was nothing amiss with the OPL 245 deal.”
A Nigerian man and his accomplice in Italy were on Thursday sentenced to four years each for their roles in the controversial Malabu oil deal, marking the first victory for Italian prosecutors in the complex corruption case.
The deal, struck in 2011 under President Goodluck Jonathan, saw the Nigerian government stand as a negotiator in the controversial sale of OPL 245 oil block in offshore Nigerian waters.
Two international oil and gas giants, Royal Dutch Shell and Italian Agip-Eni, paid out about $1.1 billion to Dan Etete, a former Nigerian petroleum minister who had previously been convicted of money laundering in France.read more
From: John Donovan <johndonovan Subject: Justin Welby Date: 20 September 2018 at 11:50:12 BST To: [email protected]
Email sent to Prominent Members of the House of Lords
SUBJECT: Justin Welby, Archbishop of Cant, with a touch of Frank Spencer
Justin Welby is in hot water again. He has criticised another controversial company, last time Wonga and this time the tax-shy Amazon. Both later embarrassingly revealed to be businesses in which the Church of England is an investor. He is currently the main target of Rod Liddle in his outspoken Sunday Times column, described as the Archbishop of Cant, with a touch of Frank Spencer.
BBC Newsnight aired a related package on Friday 14 Sept drawing attention to the subject and the Church of England’s numerous questionable investments. In particular, its holdings in BP and Shell, both described as being “toxic”. Bearing in mind the history set out below, particularly the Nazi aspect and the antisemitism, how could the Church of England invest in such a toxic business, as Shell?
Shell has targeted perceived enemies, such as Greenpeace and The Body Shop, with undercover activity using Hakluyt & Co, the commercial offshoot of MI6 set up partly by Shell and BP. read more
MILAN, Sept 20 (Reuters) – A Milan court sentenced two defendants in a Nigeria corruption case to jail on Thursday in what is a first ruling on one of the oil industry’s biggest graft scandals.
Nigeria’s Emeka Obi and Italian Gianluca Di Nardo were both found guilty of international corruption and each given four-year jail sentences, two sources with knowledge of the ruling said.
Lawyers for Obi and Nardo were not available for immediate comment.read more
19 SEPTEMBER 2018: By Prince Okafor With Agency Report
An Italian court has concluded plans to deliver its first verdict on the trial of top Shell and Eni executives, over alleged corruption in the controversial Malabu scandal tomorrow in Milan, Italy.
The Italian prosecutors alleged that $1.1 billion from the deal didn’t come into Nigeria where the oil field OPL 245 is located, but to accounts belonging to former Minister of Petroleum, Mr. Dan Etete.
The Italian judge, it was learnt will decide, for the first time, whether $1.1 billion of the sum paid was siphoned in bribes to win the license to the field.read more
MILAN, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Oil majors Shell and Eni will be carefully monitoring a first ruling this week by a Milan judge in one of the energy industry’s biggest corruption scandals for clues to what might be round the corner for them.
The two companies are embroiled in a long-running graft case revolving around the purchase in 2011 of one of Africa’s biggest oilfields – Nigeria’s OPL 245 – for about $1.3 billion.
The case, which involves Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi and four former Shell managers including one-time Shell Foundation Chairman Malcolm Brinded, has spawned legal cases spanning several countries and is expected to drag on for months.read more
The trial starts this week, with defendants that include former Shell Vice President for sub-Saharan Africa Peter Robinson, and former company board member Malcolm Brinded.
BY JOHN SMITHIES, EPOCH TIMESSeptember 17, 2018Updated: September 17, 2018
LONDON—Senior executives from oil giants Royal Dutch Shell and Eni are facing corruption charges in Milan over a $1.3 billion deal for a huge African oil field.
Italian prosecutors allege that $1.1 billion from the deal didn’t go to Nigeria, where the oil field OPL 245 is located, but to accounts belonging to former oil lawmaker Dan Etete. Etete is accused of subsequently distributing hundreds of millions of dollars to others as bribes, including to former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan.read more
Giant oil companies, offshore accounts, ex-MI6 agents, champagne lunches, a former Nigerian president and allegations of one of the biggest bribes ever paid – the corruption case against Shell and Italy’s Eni filed by prosecutors in Milan over a shady $1.3bn deal for a vast African oil field has could have been lifted from the pages of an espionage thriller.
The latest developments thicken the plot further with a cache of documents seized in a raid on a Swiss financier’s apartment that could be crucial to the case, leaving prosecutors in a race against time to get them to Milan as trial hearings get underway this week.
The Geneva raid uncovered a briefcase belonging to Emeka Obi, a middleman who received millions of dollars from the deal and is in the dock along with several senior Shell and Eni executives.
Inside the briefcase, Swiss prosecutors found a laptop, two Nigerian passports, five sim cards and a hard drive containing 41,000 documents that prosecutors believe could be crucial to the trial playing out on the other side of the Alps.read more
Bogus Group: The release of the Shell Brent PSMR is shocking testimony of the culture these pathetic incompetents administered without challenge. When Shell was generating huge revenue for the treasury, the regulator, even government ministers had their heads in the sand and a lack of accountability meant they could move on to spread their malignance. Finlayson took his “talents” to BG, another company ruined by pathetic incompetents with the same DNA.
Brinded joined Network Rail who appointed Mark Carne, another Shell/BG stray, described in one tabloid as the “bungling rail chief”. It’s ironic he now talks about (Rail Engineer 27.09.18) joining from Shell “part of an industry with a strong safety culture” and being motivated by big businesses, which are “safety-critical”, with more waffle about safety leadership and safety performance.
Will someone ever be able to “drain the British swamp” of these conceited executives who disingenuously hide behind the “safety and good old business principle banners”, to further their greed and lust for power at whatever cost.
RETIRED OIM: Bill, now the full horror of your findings during the Expro audit have been made available via Johns’ web site I wonder what kind of reaction, if any, will be generated. In retrospect and with hindsight, publishing earlier might have sealed Brinded’s demise sooner and he would never have risen to an apparent level of “the untouchable”.
The Italians hopefully will ensure he will be disgraced never to be any where near a responsible position again.
Sad to think the MF will be drawing several million £ pounds a year in pension rights as well as the vast number of Shell shares he was allocated as a direct result of his dictatorial years of apparent criminal behaviour. Just one of people who turned Shell from a well respected Company who treated Staff as a precious asset to be nurtured rather than be coerced and then dumped at the first opportunity.
exshellman: After the Shell BG merger completed in 2016 , a lot of really good people lost their jobs , it was handled terribly by the HR dept and the so called 'General Managers' culled some of the best experts they had ...in less than a year of the redundancies Shell were struggling and now with the lack of expertise...they have had to take in contractors to fill staff positions ..within a year of the redundancies ... they could be liable if people took this issue up.. Also Shell were looking at hiring back some old boy network ...who are now pensioners to come back in as managers to help out with the problems ..LOL . they have so much dead wood staff on their books and the company is ran like a club. I'm glad to be away from the farce that Shell became , the malaise started around about 2004 when they began to lose the plot. The BG merger for many was a final nail in the coffin, some of the hand picked people for the new club don't know their arse from their elbows. The only way Shell actually make profits is when the oil price goes high... when Brent is low they can't compete within their quartile or peer groups. I'll keep abreast here on the blog
Contributor to this blog: I’ve just come across an article "Tips & Insights: A World-class Combination" about the proposed combination of Royal Dutch Shell, one of the largest companies in the world and 'best known for its gasoline stations' and BG Group, a natural gas specialist.
The article centres on Sarah Franklin, (BG chief counsel, with a list of responsibilities, including health and safety after her name), who would be BG’s legal lead for integration planning.
In the article she explains that emotional intelligence was pivotal to success. I find this strange, as emotional intelligence wasn’t an attribute in BG Group. Could this be integration jargon?
Franklin has apparently added other governance matters, including human rights and whistleblowing investigations to her legal skill set. She set up BG’s first whistleblowing program.
She has inherited a new team that focuses on complex safety and environmental issues. As noted in the article, in Shell Legal, many lawyers advise on safety and environmental matters but it didn’t have a global core of experts.
If you are a Shell employee, be extremely cautious about the content of the two preceding paragraphs. If you have concerns, especially those with a safety connotation and you wish to engage with her……….beware.
I’m sure other revelations will eventually surface.
Bogus Group: I listened to the then BG Group chief executive drool over the Petrobras ‘partnership’ at his award speech for GB Personality of the Year by the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in 2013 (https://youtu.be/pfknsxjT2Rw). He described many extraordinary moments during this partnership, a relationship that had flourished with ‘mutual trust and respect and super giant discoveries’, which was going from strength to strength. He was looking to a very long future with many more Eureka moments for BG and its partners in the years and decades to come.
So why would they want to put such ‘jewel’ in the Shell crown and who was responsible for this? At that time did anyone envisage the fall from grace in the coming months and years? Since then there has been turmoil in both companies, what could possibly have gone wrong.
Insiders will know the answer.
Bonus Group: Andrew Gould, Chairman of the disgraced BG Group, who allegedly was seeking a knighthood by joining the company has gone to ground. Given his contractor mind set coupled with his training as an accountant does not bode well for the industry. His LinkedIn profile shows that he is still Chairman of BG Group, as well as being a Board Member (Non Executive!) of Saudi Aramco. Given that Saudi Aramco are going to drop their IPO, this could well leave 'Mr Corridor' twiddling his thumbs and wondering how he can manoeuvre back into a position where he can achieve his ambition of being knighted.
Prelude FLNG: It looks like Prelude has 19 helicopter fights per week. All of them are routed to the "Posh Arcaida" which is an accommodation vessel with up to 750 beds on board.
An article I read dated 17th March indicated that more than 17,500 people had been moved by helicopter since arrival.
Currently CHC Helicopters are scheduling up to 19 flights a week. That may equate to about 360 each way or a total of around 750 people. I think this may indicate the potential panic at the "slow startup". I wonder what the contractual LNG delivery dates were to be and if any cargos have had to have been bought by Shell on the open market.
Link to the helicopter operators web site
Don't Leave a Steen Unturned: Andrey Golubel. It's an oil painting, what would you expect?
Sniper: There's a bit of pattern here. Corruption seems to be running through the veins of Shell. We see in all these recent tax articles how they seem to be snuggled up in bed with the Dutch Government. Will anything come of this? Of course not silly. It has been going on for years. There is even a department called Government Relations which is staffed by - yes you guessed it - former government employees. Where was Van Beurden a few days ago, for three whole days? The very secretive Bilderberg meeting in Turin (Guardian article by Charlie Skelton can be found on this website), along with many of the worlds elite businessmen and politicians, AND the Dutch king. The outcomes of the meeting were not something I saw on any of the Shell internal or external communication messaging. Funny that, seeing how they always share even the most mundane van Beurden news. So will Shell be brought to account for its actions in OPL? I somehow doubt it. But there is some hope. Will the real Slim Robinson please stand up.
Andrey Golubel: For centuries “The Mocking of Samson” was thought to be a copy of a famous Dutch painting. Then a Shell microscope made a remarkable discovery.
Bogus Group: This gets interesting....Enron links to Dynegi, links to accounting scandal, custodial sentences, links to BG Group, links to Non Exec Directors in BG Group, more links to Dynegi 'strays' on the BG Exec committee!!! Interested parties may want to dig deeper.
Bonus Group: Biggest Fraud in History. I object! BG Group was clearly the biggest fraud in recent oil and gas industry history after Enron. The company had over-inflated its reserves on little substance and fact, and the auditors were either gullible or complicit. BG had been lucky with production, but the Geoscience supporting the production was usually fabricated. What they didn't understand they speculated about or made-up. The Board bid the shareholders up the cobblers, Project Berkshire in the Brasil Asset was a classic example of this deceit - the Emperor's new clothes. Their undoing was not that they had lied to the shareholders, but that they actually believed their own lies and flawed integrity. Their assurance process was corrupt and their cappucino and pepper plant culture led to them failing to meet targets. Ultimately, they managed to get away with it by selling-out to Shell after a protracted period of alignment, who turned around the toxic purchase by spewing-out most of BG's worthless assets, Caveat Emptor!
EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON. EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
In his testimony, Ferri described the high points of the investigation, which included working with agents from the Metropolitan Police in London, U.S. authorities and Dutch police. His testimony touched on wiretaps, a raid on Shell headquarters in the Netherlands and tracing money transfers from Great Britain to Nigeria ..facing charges are Malcolm Brinded, former chief exploration director at Shell, and Peter Robinson, a former vice president for sub-Saharan Africa at Shell.
Brinded’s reaction to the devastating findings and recommendations of the Campbell led review was to shoot the messenger, namely, Bill Campbell. Brinded chose to ignore the stunning findings by the audit team and the recommendations made by its leader Mr. Campbell in relation to the Asset Manager. Instead, Brinded supported the mentally unhinged “foaming at the mouth” Asset Manager who was able to return to his tyrannical TFA regime shortly thereafter, despite his instability. Compared with him, Captain Bligh was a sweetie. The inevitable fatal outcome accurately foretold in the review, resulted from the ruthless, unprincipled criminal decision by Brinded to put production before safety. Astonishing stuff bearing in mind that the Asset Manager repeatedly blamed “his master” Brinded, who he colourfully described as a “bastard”
By John Donovan
THE DYNAMITE SHELL INTERNAL DOCUMENT THAT ESCAPED THE SHREDDER
Round up of Royal Dutch Shell news stories from leading energy news media sources, 26 Sept 2018
Latest news roundup for Royal Dutch Shell Plc. News reports from the Wall Street Journal, Reuters and other news media organisations.
LONDON, Sept 23 (Reuters) – Royal Dutch Shell pioneered Nigeria’s oil and gas industry and remains a major investor in the West African country. But over the decades it has come under fire over spills in the Delta region and struggles with oil theft, corruption and oil-fueled violence.
By Bill Campbell, Retired HSE Group Auditor, Shell International
MILAN, Sept 18 (Reuters) – Oil majors Shell and Eni will be carefully monitoring a first ruling this week by a Milan judge in one of the energy industry’s biggest corruption scandals for clues to what might be round the corner for them.
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EBOOK TITLE: “SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: “JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL’S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: “TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA: HOW SHELL BECAME THE MOST HATED BRAND IN THE WORLD” – AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.