A WALL STREET JOURNAL NEWS ROUNDUP
September 14, 2006; Page A10
BRUSSELS — The European Union’s executive fined 14 companies a total of €266.7 million ($338.5 million) for fixing prices of bitumen, a material used in road construction.
Oil company Royal Dutch Shell PLC was hit with the biggest fine, €108 million, as a repeat offender, while French counterpart Total SA was fined €20.3 million. BP PLC got full immunity for cooperating in the probe, escaping a €30.8 million fine.
“We should not have attended these meetings and we regret our involvement in this case,” said President-Director Rein Willems of Shell Nederland BV. Regulators found eight suppliers and six purchasers participated in a cartel in the Netherlands from 1994 to 2002.
The other companies fined were Kuwait Petroleum Corp., Sweden’s AB Nynas, Ballast Nedam NV, Wintershall AG, Esha, Klockner Bitumen, Dura Vermeer NV, Heijmans NV, Hollandsche Beton Groep NV, Groep BAM NV and Volker Wessels Stevin NV.
BAM, Nedam, Heijmans and Beton said they would appeal the fines.
The cartel fines represent the seventh largest ever levied by EU regulators. Companies are liable for as much as 10% of their world-wide revenue if they are found to participate in cartels.
The companies are allowed to appeal all decisions to the European Court of First Instance in Luxembourg.
The cartel covered all bitumen used for road construction in the Netherlands, a market valued at around €62 million in 2002. EU antitrust spokesman Jonathan Todd said although the Dutch bitumen market is small, the fines are high because large companies were involved and the cartel lasted a long time.
Shell and Kuwait Petroleum were fined by regulators in Italy in 2000 and Sweden in 2005 for gasoline price-fixing in those countries.
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.
