THE NEW YORK TIMES: U.S. Attorney Ends Investigation of Shell
“The prosecutor also cited Royal Dutch/Shell’s payment of a $120 million fine imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission for accounting fraud.”
Friday 1 July 2005
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal prosecutor in Manhattan has decided not to prosecute the Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Cos. for overstating oil and gas reserves, officially ending a Justice Department probe of the company.
U.S. Attorney David Kelly announced Wednesday he had concluded that ”a criminal prosecution of Shell would not serve the public interest at this time.”
Kelly credited the world’s third-largest publicly traded oil company with cooperating with an investigation launched last year after it disclosed it had overstated its proven oil and natural gas reserves by 4.47 billion barrels, or about 23 percent, from 1997 through 2002.
The prosecutor also cited Royal Dutch/Shell’s payment of a $120 million fine imposed by the Securities and Exchange Commission for accounting fraud. Under the SEC settlement, the company also agreed to spend $5 million on an internal compliance program.
Any further penalties ”would likely have a severe and unintended disproportionate economic impact upon thousands of innocent Shell employees,” Kelly said.
Shell said it was pleased with the decision and that its cooperation had been appreciated.
”The conclusion of this investigation is a most important step toward putting the matter of the reserves recategorizations behind us,” said Chief Executive Jeroen van der Veer.
The company’s disclosure of the reserve inflation stunned shareholders and the oil industry and led to the dismissal of several top executives.
U.S.-traded shares of Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. fell 89 cents to close at $65.08 Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange, where Shell Transport & Trading Co. shares fell 96 cents to $58.20.
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.
