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ALLEGED CORRUPTION OF THE IRISH POLICE BY SHELL

OSSL seems to have been used as a “Mr Fixit” for SEPIL, allegedly facilitating the distribution of improper gifts to various parties, including the Garda, who rightly or wrongly, have been accused of acting as an offshoot of Shell security in policing protests against the project. It was also alleged that related invoices were falsified on Shell’s instructions.

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Alan Shatter TD, Irish Minister for Justice

Alan Shatter TD, Irish Minister for Justice

Dear Mr Shatter TD

I am contacting you in your capacity as the Irish Government Minister responsible for Justice.

I operate an independent, entirely non commercial website – royaldutchshellplc.com – that monitors the activities of Royal Dutch Shell.

We have many contacts inside Shell and regularly publish Shell internal information supplied by whistleblowers, including employees working on the controversial Corrib gas project. We established that the Shell Corrib emails supplied to us for publication were authentic.

In 2010, 2011, and 2012, I was in correspondence with various Garda officers, including on one occasion, Chief Superintendent M.B. Mangan, Personal Assistant to the Garda Commissioner and subsequently with Superintendent Patrick Diskin and others. The correspondence was in connection with alleged death threats made against the Corrib gas project whistleblowers. I did all I could to assist in the investigation.

More recently, in September of last year, I was contacted by a company called OSSL, which apparently for several years, supplied services to Shell E&P Ireland (SEPIR) in relation to the Corrib gas project.

OSSL seems to have been used as a “Mr Fixit” for SEPIL, allegedly facilitating the distribution of improper gifts to various parties, including the Garda, who rightly or wrongly, have been accused of acting as an offshoot of Shell security in policing protests against the project. It was also alleged that related invoices were falsified on Shell’s instructions.

We took the matter up directly with Shell at the outset giving them the opportunity to comment on, or deny the allegations, but received no response.

We did satisfy ourselves that a related leaked email to Shell dated 23 August 2012 was genuine and published it along with a related article.

Irish Supplier Accuses Shell of Bribery, Cover-up and Sinister Threats

The OSSL allegations have continued in subsequent months and in recent days we have published the following articles, which includes a purported invoice to SEPIL dated 24 August 2012 for over €35,000 worth of alcohol allegedly involving “upwards of 300 cops.”

Shell Accused of Corrupting Irish Police Force

OSSL, SHELL AND ALLEGED CORRUPTION

Following the publication of the most recent articles, I received on 30 March an email from a long-standing contact in Ireland. This person has far more  knowledge and experience than me in relation to SEPIL and the Garda. The email contained this rather chilling paragraph.

“I personally don’t know any of the OSSL people (I knew Desmond Kane, the owner of the business name by sight but that was all) but I wonder if they are fully aware of the potentially deadly danger they face in persisting with this and, to that effect, have they adequate protection in place as regards spreading copies of their evidence to different places and ensuring that the original documentation is lodged in a VERY safe location or locations.”

I have passed this concern on to OSSL and have made it clear  that it comes from a source sympathetic to the plight of OSSL.

Being a small company carrying out the instructions of Shell, OSSL must have thought what they were being asked to do by Shell was perfectly legal, bearing in mind that Shell has an in-house army of several hundred lawyers to ensure Shell operates strictly within the law. OSSL probably thought that they could safely rely on Shell.

It is only recently that, according to OSSL, Shell’s accountants in Dublin have notified them that the activities undertaken for Shell may have been criminal.

If authentic, the content of the invoice dated 24 August 2012 raises a number of issues.

1. Was the alcohol listed therein distributed as corrupt gifts to the Garda?

2. Are there cross-border smuggling and VAT issues involved?

3. Did Shell take advantage of the naivety of a small company?

Since the corruption allegations have been on the public record for several months, I am astonished that the Irish authorities apparently have not yet become involved in establishing whether there is an enormous corruption scandal surrounding the Corrib gas project, or alternatively, that a small company, for some unknown reason, is making wild unfounded allegations, possibly supported by fake documentation.

I have copied this email to Lorna Siggins at The Irish Times so that she is aware of this matter.

As a matter of courtesy, I have also sent a copy to Michiel Brandjes, Company Secretary & General Counsel Corporate, Royal Dutch Shell Plc.

Kind regards
John Donovan

This website and sisters royaldutchshellplc.com, shellnazihistory.com, royaldutchshell.website, johndonovan.website, and shellnews.net, are owned by John Donovan. There is also a Wikipedia segment.

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