California joins BP‘s former employee over a lawsuit accusing the oil giant of supplying overpriced natural gas to the state and violating the natural gas contract between the state and BP
Published: November 14, 2014 at 8:52 am EST
By: Micheal Kaufman
BP plc (ADR) (NYSE:BP) along with its trading partners was accused of charging higher natural gas price in California. BP and the state of California had signed a contract earlier according to which the company will provide natural gas to the state and charge $250 million in annual payments. However, a lawsuit was passed against the company by a former employee, Christopher Schroen, who claimed that BP will be over-charging the state by $300 million over a period of eight years.
Mr. Schroen used to work on the state program’s accounts and was fired in 2012 by BP on account of criminal charges and accusations of managing the accounts dishonestly. Mr. Schroen denied these charges, claiming the accusations to be false. He pointed out that he had refused to co-operate with BP’s management when he learnt that California was being overcharged for natural gas.
The lawsuit against BP was originally filed by Mr. Schroen, who worked at BP’s Houston-based subsidiary. He was a member of the BP team that had worked to administer natural gas contracts between BP and the California Department of General Services. He administered BP’s natural gas contracts worth $2 billion with the Californian State.
Recently, the Californian Attorney General’s office has joined the former employee on the case against BP. The state believes that BP has violated the California False Claims Act.
BP has called these charges to be “meritless” and has indicated that it will respond to these charges through legal filings at an appropriate time and did not disclose the exact date. If BP is charged guilty, it would be liable to severe punishment. Currently, there are many charges pressed against the oil giant, including retaliation, defamation of character, and the immoral termination of Mr. Schroen. The lawsuit seeks triple damages from the company. BP stock fell 1.2% to $40.67 today during pre-market trading.
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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.
