EMAIL TO THE ENFORCEMENT SECTION OF THE US SECURITIES & EXCHANGE COMMISSION 6 JULY 2004
SUBJECT: SEC INQUIRY INTO ROYAL DUTCH SHELL GROUP, OIL AND GAS RESERVES
RE: LAW SUIT NO. S2-23-41-2004 AMENDED ORDER 29 JUNE 2004: EIGHT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL
COMPANIES OBTAIN A RESTRAINING ORDER AGAINST FORMER SHELL GEOLOGIST DR HUONG YIU TUONG
THIS INFORMATION IS FOR THE SEC TEAM INVESTIGATING THE RECATEGORISATION OF RESERVES BY ROYAL DUTCH SHELL GROUP
I am writing to bring to your attention the fact that eight Shell companies including a Shell Exploration & Production company, have issued a High Court Writ/Restraining Order in Malaysia to silence a former Shell geologist of almost 30 years standing, Dr John Huong, a Malaysian national.
One of the Shell companies is based in the UK; one is in Holland and six in the Far East. The restraining order also relates to the “Shell Whistleblower” web pages published on the website Shell2004.com of which I am the sole owner and publisher. As per the Court Order, postings under Dr Huongs name have been removed from the website.
As Shell is aware I assisted Dr Huong in the drafting/conversion/ translation/editing of his rough copy into the English language, in a suitable form for publication on the Internet. Shell has not brought proceedings against me although I am more responsible than Dr Huong for the relevant website postings.
We posted an “appetiser” (my description) on Shell2004.com and had threatened Shell management with “the main course”, which I understood from Dr Huong to have been important revelations in regards to various matters including the Shell oil reserves controversy.
Within 2 hours of deleting the relevant “appetiser” website postings, I was contacted by Mr Steven J. Peitler, an investigator from the New York law firm, Bernstein Liebhard & Lifshitz LLP. They act for the lead Plaintiff, the Pennsylvania State Pension Fund, in the largest US class action multi-million dollar law suit being brought against the Royal Dutch Shell Group and named current and former directors in relation to the recategorisation of reserves.
Mr Peitler urgently wanted to make contact with Dr Huong to discuss his intimate knowledge/expertise as a former Shell geologist of matters relating to the Shell reserves controversy. I cannot recall his exact words but Mr Peitler gave me the impression that Shell had a track record for cutting off his lines of enquiry. They apparently have a talent for silencing/neutralising potential witnesses just before Mr Peitler tries to make contact. It appears that this may have happened again.
Unbeknown to Shell, Mr Huong had fortunately already supplied me with some written comments on the reserves debacle. I was at least able to email at the request of Mr Peitler copies of the deleted website postings and supply him with other documents by fax. Mr Peitler is of course now even keener to speak to Dr Huong.
I still have in my possession further documentary evidence which indicates that at the very least Dr Huong has inside knowledge of the policies and practices which contributed to the recategorisation of Shell oil and gas reserves admitted by Shell. In one such transcript Dr Huong even mentioned in expansive broken English the manipulation of the reserves figures and related collusion in top management in the Shell operating companies. He also attributed blame to the so-called “transformation” process brought in by Sir Mark Moody-Stuart during his tenure as Group Chairman. Apparently vital specialist expertise was lost in the associated widespread job culling exercise. Dr Huong has also stated that he knows how to identify the wrongdoers at Shell. He told me that he could direct the SEC to particular documents of material importance.
I have read Dr Huongs credentials and they appear extremely impressive. He apparently has a wide-ranging knowledge/expertise in relevant matters. I understand that as a geologist, Dr Huong specialised in many areas of earth sciences like micropalaeontology, sequence stratigraphy, exploration geology, sedimentology, reservoir geology and production geology. I further understand that he was a contributor/producer for field development plans, scouting for block biddings and was invited to study oil and gas basins in former CIS in early 1990’s by the Russian Ministry for oil and gas.
Dr Huong informed me that he is well conversant with integrated field development with inclusion of disciplines such as petrophysical evaluation of hydrocarbon, the reservoir engineering aspects for reserves assessment (including seismological notional field development based on seismological data) and the economic screening criteria. I understand that in 1997 he was assigned by Shell Malaysia to the multi-billion dollar Kinabalu offshore platform project as the only Production Geologist.
Perhaps the SEC may be able to persuade the Royal Dutch Shell Group to allow Dr Huong to disclose his evidence/testimony/ to the SEC and the US Justice Department. In the latter connection, I would be most grateful if you would kindly inform the US Justice Department of this communication.
Dr Huong is naturally shocked by the heavy-handed action of Shell bearing in mind that Shell management has ignored a barrage of negative comments made about their conduct by the news media over several months. Shell’s reputation has been shot to pieces not by his comments, but by the admissions of its own management and the consequential deluge of extremely negative publicity. This is why it is suspected that Shell has an ulterior motive in using the full weight of the law to silence him. However, Dr Huong will surely be too frightened to say anything unless permitted to do so by the Shell and the Courts. I must stress that I have no authority to speak on his behalf, but in the interests of justice I felt compelled to contact the SEC. Neither can I testify to his expertise as I am not an expert in such specialist matters.
However, I have supplied Mr Peitler with my own documentary evidence of a deeply ingrained corporate culture of deceit and cover-up at the highest levels of the Royal Dutch Shell Group and I would happily supply the same evidence to the SEC/US Justice Department on request. I have also been asked to give testimony in connection with a different US class action law suit against Shell. I am also in possession of several confidential Shell internal documents, some of which relate directly to the oil reserves scandal. I have received such documents from multiple sources.
THE SOLICITORS ACTING FOR THE ROYAL DUTCH SHELL GROUP IN THE DR HUONG LAWSUIT ARE, T H LIEW & PARTNERS, KUALA LUMPUR, TEL: 03 21474624
THE US LAW FIRM IS BERNSTEIN LIEBHARD & LIFSHITZ LLP, 10 EAST 40TH STREET, NEW YORK, NY 10016.
TEL: 001 212-779-1414
THE EMAIL ADDRESS FOR DR HUONG IS: [email protected]
Yours sincerely
Alfred Donovan
CC Shell management (Dr Huongs usual circulation list plus dozens of other Shell execs in the USA, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK.)
REFERENCE TO RESPONSE RECEIVED
ATTENTION OF MR JOHN REED STARK, CHIEF, OFFICE OF INTERNET ENFORCEMENT UNITED STATES SECURITY & EXCHANGE COMMISSION, 6 JULY 2004
SUBJECT: SEC INQUIRY INTO ROYAL DUTCH SHELL GROUP OVERSTATEMENT OF RESERVES
Dear Mr Stark
Thank you for the response to my email. I have noted the comments about confidentiality which I will of course respect.
I would however like to take up the invitation to provide further information.
I have now analysed the website articles which were the subject of an injunction obtained by eight Royal Dutch Shell companies in the Malaya High Court against the unfortunate Dr John Huong. I fear that Dr Huong is caught in the crossfire of a much bigger battle being waged in the UK. I refer to the long-standing acrimony between my family and Shell. The ultimate David and Goliath contest.
The relevant website articles did contain comments by Dr Huong in relation to Sir Mark Moody-Stuart and Shell Legal Director Richard Wiseman in connection with the reserves scandal. In the first instalment dated 10 June 2004, Dr Huong castigated them as Shell leaders for setting an example of a corporate culture of deceit which was imitated by executives in the operating companies. The same instalment also contained a call by Dr Huong for the immediate resignation of every Shell director tainted by the reserves scandal, including by name, Mr Van der Veer and Mr Malcolm Brinded.
In the second instalment Dr Huong quoted from an article published in the Independent newspaper on 20 April 2004, written by Damian Reed, City Editor. The article covers the findings of the investigation, undertaken by Davis Polk & Wardwell, the American law firm, at the request of Shell. Dr Huong appears to claim that he was the source for the article although this is not absolutely clear.
As previously indicated I will happily supply the three articles if so requested by the Securities & Exchange Commission together with other documents in my keeping including a considerable volume of incontrovertible documentary evidence of the Royal Dutch Shell Group deliberately concealing highly sensitive information from its own shareholders.
Earlier this evening, I faxed some of the relevant documents to the New York law firm of Bernstein Liebhard & Lifshitz LLP in connection with the class action law suit against Royal Dutch Shell and named current and former directors, including Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, being brought on behalf of the lead plaintiff, the Pennsylvania State Pension Fund.
I have printed extracts below from the covering letter dated 6 July 2004: –
I attach a copy of a letter dated 6 April 1998 from Ms Jyoti Munsiff, the Company Secretary Shell Transport and Trading Company plc sent on behalf of Mark Moody-Stuart, the then Chairman and Managing Director of Shell Transport. I have also supplied a related threatening letter from Mark Mood-Stuart himself dated 9 April 1998. At the time Sir Mark was a Group Managing Director of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. He remains a director of Shell Transport.
The letters relate to the document I supplied on Friday and prove beyond any doubt the intent at the very highest level of Shell management to deliberately hide embarrassing/sensitive information from the parties/individuals that actually own the company – Shell shareholders.
I have also supplied the response letter sent to Moody-Stuart by my son. I draw your attention in particular to the latter half of the bottom paragraph of the first page which states: –
“Yet you are not prepared for the same information to be supplied, even on a confidential basis, to the people who actually own the company – your shareholders. Your decision to keep company members in the dark speaks absolute volumes. So much for the core principle of “openness”. When it comes to the crunch, covering-up a catalogue of misdeeds by Shell managers, despite incontrovertible evidence of flagrant breaches of the principles of honesty and integrity, apparently takes priority.”
Is this not a classic example of the management culture which ended with the destruction of Shell’s reputation?
END OF EXTRACTS
Yours sincerely
Alfred Donovan
CC.
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.
Royal Dutch Shell conspired directly with Hitler, financed the Nazi Party, was anti-Semitic and sold out its own Dutch Jewish employees to the Nazis. Shell had a close relationship with the Nazis during and after the reign of Sir Henri Deterding, an ardent Nazi, and the founder and decades long leader of the Royal Dutch Shell Group. His burial ceremony, which had all the trappings of a state funeral, was held at his private estate in Mecklenburg, Germany. The spectacle (photographs below) included a funeral procession led by a horse drawn funeral hearse with senior Nazis officials and senior Royal Dutch Shell directors in attendance, Nazi salutes at the graveside, swastika banners on display and wreaths and personal tributes from Adolf Hitler and Reichsmarschall, Hermann Goring. Deterding was an honored associate and supporter of Hitler and a personal friend of Goring.
Deterding was the guest of Hitler during a four day summit meeting at Berchtesgaden. Sir Henri and Hitler both had ambitions on Russian oil fields. Only an honored personal guest would be rewarded with a private four day meeting at Hitler’s mountain top retreat.
IN JULY 2007, MR BILL CAMPBELL (ABOVE, A RETIRED GROUP AUDITOR OF SHELL INTERNATIONAL SENT AN EMAIL TO EVERY UK MP AND MEMBER OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS: 
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A head-cut image of Alfred Donovan (now deceased) appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
