Posts Tagged ‘FSA’

Financial Times: Ex-Shell chief to challenge FSA ruling

“Sir Philip Watts, former chairman of Royal Dutch/Shell, is due to challenge the Financial Services Authority at the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal today.”: “He claimed he had been “identified and prejudiced” when the regulator fined Shell £17m in August 2004 for misleading the market by overstating its oil and gas reserves between 1998 and 2003.”

Monday 25 July 2005

By Kate Burgess

Published: July 25 2005

Sir Philip Watts, former chairman of Royal Dutch/Shell, is due to challenge the Financial Services Authority at the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal today.

Sir Philip, who was forced to resign from Shell in March 2004, first launched his appeal against the FSA in the autumn. He claimed he had been “identified and prejudiced” when the regulator fined Shell £17m in August 2004 for misleading the market by overstating its oil and gas reserves between 1998 and 2003. read more

ShellNews.net: Why has Ex-Shell Boss Watts brought proceedings against the FSA who did not name him in their Shell reserves scandal report but not against publishers and broadcasters who have named him in connection with the debacle?

Tuesday 26 July 2005

Numerous media reports have categorically named and blamed Sir Philip Watts for the Shell reserves debacle which destroyed Shell’s reputation. Yet Sir Philip has not brought proceedings against any of them. So why is he embroiled in proceedings against the Financial Services Authority who did not name and blame him in their report?

To take an example of one TV broadcast, we have provided extracts below from a BBC TV programme about the scandal – “The Money Programme”, aired on 15 July 2004. read more

BLOOMBERG: U.K. FSA Asks for Ruling on Ex-Shell Boss’s Challenge

“Class-Action Ammunition: While Watts wasn’t identified by name in the FSA’s notice, it may provide ammunition in the class-action suits filed against him.”: “Watts, 59, asked for the tribunal to challenge the notice the FSA published when Shell agreed to pay fines of $150 million in Britain and the U.S.

Oct. 18 (Bloomberg) — The U.K.’s financial regulator will ask a tribunal to decide whether former Royal Dutch/Shell Group chairman Philip Watts was “identified and prejudiced” by the regulator’s penalty against Shell for overstating oil reserves.

“We are confident that he was not and that the tribunal will agree with us,” the Financial Services Authority said in an e- mailed statement. “This would mean that the tribunal will have no jurisdiction to consider the other matters which Sir Philip has referred to the tribunal.” read more

Financial Times: FSA fights shy of interventionism

“The FSA was criticised by some commentators for its decision to fine Shell £17m for misreporting reserves. This penalised shareholders who had already seen the value of their holdings suffer.”: “However, it does seem reasonable to deliver a message to shareholders that they have the responsibility to ensure senior [managers] manage their company well and they should share in the consequences of management not behaving well.”

By Deborah Hargreaves

Published: September 13 2004

The Financial Services Authority is not naturally an interventionist regulator and should look wherever possible for market-based solutions, according to Hector Sants, managing director of wholesale and institutional markets.

Part of the regulator’s approach to monitoring financial markets is to encourage operators to blow the whistle on malpractice. “We have the assumption that the majority of people in the marketplace are decent people seeking to do the right thing,” he said in an interview with the FT. read more

The Wall Street Journal: UK Market Regulator Earns Stripes With Shell Fine

“”The Shell case, by raising the stakes so dramatically for the FSA, is kind of another way of rattling the handcuffs.”

By JACK GRONE

Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES

July 30, 2004 11:07 a.m.

Posted 31 July 04

LONDON — The U.K.’s Financial Services Authority has hit the big time.

By slapping Royal Dutch/Shell Group (RD, SC) with a GBP17 million fine Thursday over the company’s misreporting of its oil and gas reserves earlier this year, the FSA did little damage to the oil giant’s bottom line.

But the penalty, announced alongside a bigger fine that Shell will pay to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, should send a clear warning to the broader market, observers said. read more

The Times: Shell agrees to pay fines of £83m

“continuing criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice.”: “Both Euronext and AFM, the Dutch securities institute, are also investigating Shell”

By Carl Mortished, International Business Editor

July 30, 2004

SHELL will pay fines totalling £83 million to UK and US stock market regulators as a penalty for offences of market abuse and violation of securities laws relating to its misreporting of oil and gas reserves.

The payments, revealed yesterday by the oil company in a statement that did not concede liability, include £17 million to the Financial Services Authority, the largest fine ever imposed by the UK regulator, and a $120 million (£66 million) civil penalty to the Securities and Exchange Commission. read more

The Scotsman: Shell Fined £65M after Reserves Crisis

“inquiry which found that Shell violated reporting, record-keeping and anti-trust rules.”

By David Winning, City Staff, PA News

Thu 29 Jul 2004 8:07am (UK)

Oil giant Shell said today it had been hit with a 120 million US dollar (£65.7 million) fine following its reserves crisis earlier this year.

The penalty was imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the US after an inquiry which found that Shell violated reporting, record-keeping and anti-trust rules.

The Anglo-Dutch group rocked the market in January by announcing that its oil and gas stocks were 20% lower than previously thought. It subsequently downgraded its reserves a further three times. read more