London Evening Standard: £2.5m for Shell boss who quit
“will astonish investors who have lost millions from the collapse in Shell’s share price since the debacle broke”
Jim Armitage
12 August 2004
Posted 13 August 04
WALTER van de Vijver, the former Shell operations director who resigned over the scandal about overbooking oil reserves, will scoop a pay-off of €3.8m (£2.5m).
The payment is bound to spark a new fat-cat outcry over the issue of ‘rewards for failure’ and will astonish investors who have lost millions from the collapse in Shell’s share price since the debacle broke.
Shell said the payment to de Vijver, who was in charge of exploration and development, would be made in stages.
De Vijver was at one time heir apparent to the top job at Shell. He is widely blamed for being part of the cover-up as his boss Sir Philip Watts allegedly attempted to keep a lid on the true state of Shell’s reserves.
A US law firm called in by Shell to investigate the affair found he was Watts’ main accuser. He has ceaselessly denied responsibility for the scandal, which eventually resulted in the group admitting it had overbooked 3.9bn barrels of oil as ‘proven’ reserves.
De Vijver’s were the most explosive internal emails revealed by Shell’s investigation. He wrote to Watts last November: ‘I am becoming sick and tired about lying about the extent of our reserves issues and the downward revisions that need to be done because of far too aggressive/optimistic bookings.’ But his pleas were repeatedly brushed aside by Watts.
Shell said De Vijver’s severance pay was subject to his continuing co-operation with regulators investigating the affair. He is being sued in class actions by a number of major US shareholders.
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.
