BY DALE KASLER: [email protected]: 23 Sept 2016
Shell and its Equilon Enterpises LLC affiliate were essentially caught double-billing the state fund
Shell Oil Co. and an affiliate have agreed to pay $20 million to California officials over false claims the companies submitted to a state-run underground storage tank cleanup fund, California officials said Friday.
As part of the settlement, state officials permanently rejected cleanup claims from Shell and the affiliate totaling as much as $150 million.
Andrew DiLuccia, a spokesman for the State Water Resources Control Board, said Shell and its Equilon Enterpises LLC affiliate were essentially caught double-billing the state fund. “They were getting reimbursement for cleanup costs from an insurer,” he said.
The dispute arose over California’s underground storage tank cleanup fund, which was created by the Legislature in 1989 and is operated by the state water board. The fund disburses grants of up to $1.5 million to owners of leaking tanks beneath gas stations and truck stops throughout California.
Officials with the state water board had challenged Shell’s claims starting in 2007. Then in 2010 a whistleblower sued Shell in Sacramento Superior Court, charging that the oil giant had been seeking reimbursement for costs that were already covered by insurance companies and other sources.
That case has now been settled. Shell and Equilon will pay the water board around $11.4 million and the California attorney general’s office about $4.9 million.
The rest of the settlement, around $3.4 million, will go to the whistleblower. The whistleblower’s identity wasn’t immediately known.
The cleanup fund “is a critical tool the state water board uses to protect public health and safety and the environment,” said Cris Carrigan, director of the board’s office of enforcement, in a prepared statement. “It is imperative that claimants not engage in bad faith or fraud.”
Officials with Shell weren’t immediately available for comment.
The water board said the Shell/Equilon agreement is the third settlement reached over “similar conduct by a major oil company.”
Dale Kasler: 916-321-1066, @dakasler
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/business/article103671757.html#storylink=cpy
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.
