London Evening Standard: Shamed Shell chief hits back
“The move is a bolt from the blue from Shell’s former chairman, ousted in disgrace in March over the scandal that has led to the worst year in the group’s history.”
Steve Hawkes,
16 September 2004
IR Philip Watts has dramatically broken his six-month silence over the reserves scandal at Shell by launching an unprecedented challenge to the Financial Services Authority* and throwing yet more doubt on where responsibility for the fiasco at the oil giant lies.
In a devastating attack on the City regulator, Watts claims the FSA broke its own rules when fining Shell £17m last month for stock market abuse by ‘identifying and prejudicing’ him in the finding and ‘unfairly denying’ him the right to review the evidence prior to its publication.
‘The FSA violated my statutory rights to review and rebut the allegations,’ Watts said in a letter issued by lawyers Herbert Smith. ‘I believe that a full and fair examination of the facts will demonstrate that I have acted properly and in good faith at all times. I look forward to the time when I will have an opportunity to publicly address these matters.’
He is referring the FSA to the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal. The move is a bolt from the blue from Shell’s former chairman, ousted in disgrace in March over the scandal that has led to the worst year in the group’s history. It will place huge pressure on FSA chief executive John Tiner. An FSA spokesman refused to comment.
Shell stunned investors earlier this year by revealing it had overstated the amount of proven oil and gas reserves on its books by almost four billion barrels. Today’s filing to the tribunal reflects Watts’ fury at being made scapegoat for the crisis.
Herbert Smith claims that many of the reserves eventually wiped off the proved portfolio were booked before he became head of the group’s exploration arm in 1996 or after his promotion to chairman. It adds that the accuracy of each reserves statement was checked by experts within Shell and external auditors KPMG.
In a statement that will astound the City, the lawyer writes: ‘The applicant [Watts] is not an expert in the estimation of reserves or US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reporting.’
While conceding that the FSA does not directly name Watts in last month’s findings, Herbert Smith claims they relate to matters that identify him and only highlight periods when he was in charge.
Watts is not pursuing similar action against the SEC, which slapped a £66m penalty on 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.
