By BENOIT FAUCON
March 7, 2008
LONDON — Royal Dutch Shell PLC agreed to pay about $118 million to settle claims regarding its energy reserves.
It said it reached a deal to settle claims from U.S. shareholders, complementing an agreement last year to pay close to $400 million to settle a Dutch case with European shareholders.
The settlements, if approved by the courts, would put an end to the years of litigation that followed a reserves restatement in 2004.
The U.S. lawsuit was brought by the Pennsylvania State Employees’ Retirement System and the Pennsylvania Public School Employees’ Retirement System after the oil group revealed it had overstated its proved reserves by about 20%.
The restatement led to the ousting of then-Chief Executive Philip Watts and an overhaul of the company’s corporate structure. Shell has already set aside $500 million for the settlements in the U.S. and Europe.
Under the proposed settlement, the U.S. shareholders would receive a base amount of $82.9 million, proportional to the amount payable to the plaintiffs in the Dutch settlement announced last year.
The plaintiffs in the U.S. and Dutch cases collectively would also receive an additional payment of $35 million. European plaintiffs would get $28.3 million, while the U.S. plaintiffs would receive $6.7 million.
Both the U.S. and Dutch plaintiffs would receive interest on their respective settlements, running from April 1.
The Dutch settlement, whereby Shell agreed to pay $352.6 million to shareholders and $47 million in fees to U.S. trial lawyers, was the result of European shareholders opting out of an initial U.S. class-action lawsuit. That suit was settled yesterday.
Write to Benoit Faucon at [email protected]
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.
