The Times: Ousted Shell chief takes FSA to court
“The FSA accused Shell of “unprecedented misconduct” resulting in market abuse and breach of listing rules.”
By Patrick Hosking, Investment Editor
September 17, 2004
SIR PHILIP WATTS, the ousted chairman of Shell, is taking the Financial Services Authority to court, claiming it treated him unfairly in its judgment on the oil group’s reserves mis-statement scandal.
Sir Philip yesterday announced plans to challenge the regulator in the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal, the appeal court for FSA decisions.
He accused the FSA of unfairly blackening him and prejudicing a continuing FSA investigation into his conduct when it fined the oil company £17 million last month for misleading shareholders.
The FSA report accompanying the fine was “flawed” and the FSA had treated him “unfairly” in its haste to publish, Sir Philip claimed.
“I have instructed my lawyers to file an application in the tribunal regarding the FSA’s breach of section 393 of the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and the harm subsequently caused to me,” he said.
Section 393 says that people identified in FSA reports should be given an opportunity to review and rebut allegations. Although not named in the report, Sir Philip believes that he was “identified and prejudiced” by its publication.
Yesterday’s statement — made through his lawyers, Herbert Smith — is Sir Philip’s first public utterance on the affair since he was sacked in June with a £1.05 million pay-off and a £584,000-a-year pension.
Sir Philip said that he had always acted properly and in good faith and that he wanted a tribunal hearing to show it. He is understood not to be seeking compensation, but the chance to clear his name. He is thought to see the report as “criticism by the back door”.
In August Shell was criticised by the FSA and the US Securities and Exchange Commission, which fined it a further $120 million (£66 million), for misleading investors by overstating reserves of oil and gas between 1998 and 2003. The FSA accused Shell of “unprecedented misconduct” resulting in market abuse and breach of listing rules.
Sir Philip and other directors face class-action lawsuits from shareholders.
The FSA had no comment. Shell declined to comment.
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.
