Forbes.com: Former Shell Chairman Appeals Censure
“The Financial Services Authority’s final notice, issued on Aug. 24, said Shell had made false or misleading announcements in relation to its hydrocarbon reserves and reserves replacement ratios between 1998 and 2003, and had made those announcements despite indications and warnings that they were false.”
Associated Press
09.16.2004
The former chairman of Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Sir Philip Watts, petitioned a British regulatory body for permission to challenge some of its findings on Shell’s oil reserves scandal.
In a letter submitted to the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal, Watts defended his actions as head of the company.
“I believe that a full and fair examination of all the facts will demonstrate that I have acted properly and in good faith at all times,” Watts said in the letter.
Since January, Shell has downgraded its proven reserves by 4.47 billion barrels, or 23 percent.
Proven reserves are the amount of oil and gas a company expects to commercially pump to the surface. They are a crucial measure for investors of an oil company’s performance and future value.
The reserves overstatement led to the resignations of Watts, head of exploration and production Walter van de Vijver, and chief financial officer Judy Boynton. It also drew the attention of regulators in the United States and Europe.
The Anglo-Dutch company agreed last month to pay 17 million pounds (US$30.2 million, euro24.9 million) to the Financial Services Authority, which found the company guilty of market abuse.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission also fined Shell US$120 million (euro145 million).
Watts has so far kept silent on the reserves issue. But, through his lawyers, he said the FSA’s findings against Shell are flawed, and he distanced himself from the scandal.
The Financial Services Authority’s final notice, issued on Aug. 24, said Shell had made false or misleading announcements in relation to its hydrocarbon reserves and reserves replacement ratios between 1998 and 2003, and had made those announcements despite indications and warnings that they were false.
Watts was appointed group managing director in 1997 and chairman in 2001. He resigned in March.
Watts’ filing, by the law firm of Crowell & Moring in Washington, D.C., said he was “not an expert in the estimation of reserves or SEC reporting.”
The filing says the FSA’s final notice failed to acknowledge that Watts relied on Shell’s experts on reserves estimation and on external auditors Pricewaterhouse Coopers and KPMG LLP to ensure the tallies’ accuracy.
Watts’s lawyer, Joseph Goldstein of Washington D.C. law firm Crowell & Moring, said Watts had no further comment.
The FSA, which has 30 days to respond, declined to comment, as did Shell.
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.
