Sunday Telegraph: Shell’s auditors in firing line as US lawyers prepare class action
“Shell had ignored internal warnings for several years that it was overstating its reserves to maintain the appearance of having a strong oil and gas reserves base”
By Sylvia Pfeifer (Filed: 29/08/2004)
The US law firm leading class action lawsuits against Shell is considering targeting the oil giant’s external auditors, KPMG and PricewaterhouseCoopers, over their alleged role in the overbooking of reserves.
Stanley Bernstein, the senior partner with Bernstein Liebhard & Lifshitz, which is heading the class actions as “lead plaintiff” on behalf of investors, said that his firm was considering including the auditors when it files an amended complaint against Shell next month.
“We will be filing an amended complaint by mid-September. We are also aggressively looking at their [the auditors’] role. It is something that we are investigating.”
Shell shocked investors in January when it revealed that it had overbooked its oil and gas reserves by 25 per cent. The class action suits already name a number of present and former Shell senior executives.
Last week the Financial Services Authority, the UK regulator, and the Securities and Exchange Commission, the US regulator, published their findings into Shell’s reserves overbooking. The regulators said that Shell had ignored internal warnings for several years that it was overstating its reserves to maintain the appearance of having a strong oil and gas reserves base.
Bernstein said his firm is still trying to establish whether KPMG and PwC have violated America’s securities law. He rejects the argument that because the auditors only audited Shell’s financial accounts – which do not include its reserves – they cannot be held responsible.
“KPMG believes it has behaved appropriately and accurately in our audit work at all times,” a spokesman for KMPG said this weekend. A spokeswoman for PwC said when the FSA report was published last week: “We stand by the work undertaken by PwC.”
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.
