Shell and the forerunner of BP bribed a famous politician to facilitate a merger
According to Sir Martin Gilbert, the official biographer of Winston Churchill, Royal Dutch Shell and BP (then called Burmah Anglo-Persian Oil Company), were in merger discussions in 1923.
Extract from a BBC News Magazine article published 22 Jan 2015
10. Cash for influence
“In return for a fee of £5,000 two oil companies, Royal Dutch Shell and Burmah Anglo-Persian Oil Company [later BP], asked him to represent them in their application to the government for a merger,” Gilbert’s official biography stated.
By modern British political standards, the 1923 payment would be considered highly inappropriate.
Churchill, whose “political career was in the doldrums” at the time, according to a history of British Petroleum, agreed to use his parliamentary influence to raise the issue in return for money.