The Guardian: A slap on the wrist for Shell
“Nor can it yet draw a line under the costs of the affair. That lies with the US justice department and the American courts.”
Reserves fine won’t dent bottom line
Friday July 30, 2004
Posted 31 July 2004
The $120m it cost Royal Dutch/ Shell to settle with the securities and exchange commission over the reserves scandal sounds a lot. Even the significantly more modest £17m slapped on by the Financial Services Authority dwarfs the previous record fine (£4m) imposed by the British regulator. But when a company is the world’s third-largest oil company, will it really notice fines on this scale?
Not surprisingly, Royal Dutch/Shell says it will. “Eye watering” was the term used by one executive yesterday. But pause a moment. A quick back-of-the-envelope calculation shows the fines equate to less than four days of the group’s second-quarter net income of $4bn.
Punishment is not always to be measured in pounds. Reputational impact counts, too, and Royal Dutch/Shell’s attempts to repair the damage already done by the reserves affair will not be helped by the no doubt frequent references to the group’s place in the FSA’s record books. Nor can it yet draw a line under the costs of the affair. That lies with the US justice department and the American courts.
There is also a question of levying fines on a scale that would dent even Royal Dutch/Shell’s bottom line. Who would foot the bill? The group’s already long-suffering shareholders.
Nevertheless, while justice may have been done, there is a niggling sense that it may not have been seen to be done.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/story/0,,1272296,00.html
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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.
