THE NEW YORK TIMES
The officials said investigators had recently turned up information suggesting that Ms. Norton had had discussions while in office with Royal Dutch Shell about future career opportunities. In early 2006, Ms. Nortons department awarded three tracts in Colorado to a Shell subsidiary for shale exploration. In December 2006, she joined Shell as the companys general counsel in the United States for unconventional oils, a company spokeswoman said.
The existence of a federal criminal investigation was first reported Thursday by The Los Angeles Times.
Ms. Norton, 55, was President George W. Bushs first interior secretary. In that job, she was an ally of Vice President Dick Cheney in the administrations general approach of opening up more federal lands for energy exploration.
The possibility that Ms. Norton violated the law by seeking employment with a company while she was a federal official in a position to benefit the company stemmed from an investigation of many months by the Interior Departments inspector general. The officials who confirmed the investigation did so on the condition of anonymity, citing the custom to decline to speak publicly on criminal investigations in progress.
Kelly C. op de Weegh, a Shell spokeswoman, said: We are aware of an investigation. However, we are not in a position to comment. Ms. op de Weegh said Ms. Norton, who works in the companys Denver offices, would not comment as well.
For more than a year, Interior Department investigators have been looking into Ms. Nortons dealings with Shell. They interviewed dozens of department officials about the program to lease tracts for shale exploration.
The officials from the office of inspector general recently turned over their findings to the Justice Department.
The Colorado tracts are part of a program to allow energy companies to experiment with methods of extracting oil from shale, a rocklike substance common in the western United States.
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.
