Social Media 101News and information on Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Will the Prince Turn Pauper? (*$500,000 Shell bribe was given to this corrupt family)
Billions Later, Jefri’s in a Royal Mess (Front page story)
By MARK MAREMONT
March 1, 2008
Prince Jefri Bolkiah of Brunei once was one of the wealthiest men in the world. Now he’s worried he may soon be homeless and forced into bankruptcy.
“They want me to give it all back,” he says, flanked by giant Dutch landscape paintings and billowing gold drapery in the cavernous living room of his London villa, where he resides with one of his three wives and two of his 18 children. “We don’t know where we are going to live.”
The 53-year-old younger brother of the Sultan of Brunei, Prince Jefri is on the losing end of one of the world’s most colorful family feuds. It started a decade ago, when the prince was stripped of his government roles and later accused by Brunei authorities of misappropriating $14.8 billion of the royal treasury’s money.
He denies that, but there’s no doubt much had been expended on Prince Jefri’s famously sybaritic lifestyle. The jet-setting prince bought mansions around the world, amassed a fleet of 1,700 luxury cars and acquired a 180-foot yacht that he named using a slang word for female breasts.
The Sultan since then has waged a legal siege on three continents to reclaim Prince Jefri’s considerable riches. The Sultan scored a decisive victory late last year, when Britain’s Privy Council — which hears final legal appeals from Brunei, a former British protectorate — ruled that the prince needed to abide by a 2000 agreement to return nearly all his remaining holdings.
On Tuesday, Prince Jefri effectively lost control of his most valuable remaining asset, the New York Palace Hotel, an opulent 55-story property formerly known as the Helmsley Palace. The Brunei government took ownership of the hotel following a New York court order. But the judge has restricted it from selling the property pending the outcome of further proceedings and the prince is disputing the change in control.
“Brothers should get along with each other,” the New York judge, Justice Helen Freedman, admonished the lawyers for the warring royals at a recent hearing. Justice Freedman jokingly threatened to refer the case to a domestic-violence court.
Wealthy families often have squabbled over money. The Koch brothers of Kansas spent years in court in the 1980s and ’90s, battling over their family’s giant oil pipeline concern. In 2001, Chicago’s Pritzker family decided to divvy up its $20 billion fortune after a bitter dispute among siblings and cousins. But Prince Jefri’s experience represents one of the largest fortunes ever lost.
In the New York hearing, one of Prince Jefri’s lawyers, Philip Le B. Douglas, likened the idea of Prince Jefri working for a living to Russian aristocrats who “froze to death” after being forced to sweep the streets without winter clothes following the 1917 revolution. The prince, Mr. Douglas said, “has had unimaginable wealth all of his life. Now he’s going to go and bus tables?”
The Sultan’s advisers have started legal proceedings to evict Prince Jefri from his London mansion, and the sides continue to wrangle over the fate of the Hotel Bel-Air, an upscale property in the Los Angeles hills still controlled by the prince.
“I spend too much time with lawyers,” sighs Prince Jefri, a trim, soft-spoken man with a dapper moustache. He says he’s “more or less agreed” to turn over the various assets, but is still hoping his brother the Sultan will let him keep enough money to maintain a more modest version of his prior lifestyle.
The government of Brunei doesn’t seem inclined to go along. “Prince Jefri signed an agreement and he should stick to it,” says Lindsay Marr, a London-based attorney for the Brunei Investment Agency, a government-owned fund. “Why should he be allowed to keep a large amount of money that wasn’t his in the first place?”
Prince Jefri already has turned over billions of dollars worth of property, including the Plaza Athenee hotel in Paris, the giant yacht, the car collection, and more than 100 paintings by Picasso, Renoir, Modigliani and others. Late last year, he surrendered five rare diamonds, secured in a London vault, valued at roughly $200 million.
Situated in southeast Asia, Brunei is a small, oil-rich nation of 374,000 people on the northern coast of the island of Borneo, surrounded by part of Malaysia. The Sultan, Hassanal Bolkiah, is an absolute monarch who has ruled the Islamic enclave since 1967. Forbes ranks him as the world’s wealthiest ruler, with an estimated fortune of $22 billion.
Prince Jefri — whose full name is Duli Yang Teramat Mulia Paduka Seri Pengiran Digadong Sahibul Mal Pengiran Muda Haji Jefri Bolkiah — is the youngest of the Sultan’s three brothers. For many years, he was finance minister and chairman of the Brunei Investment Agency, which is charged with investing much of the country’s wealth. Under Prince Jefri, some of the BIA’s money went to improving infrastructure, he says.
But much of the BIA’s money went to Prince Jefri. According to court documents, the prince spent $475 million on Rolls Royce cars, $78 million at Italian sports-car company Pininfarina SpA, and $900 million at British jeweler Asprey. He liked Asprey so much that in 1995 he bought the company, for $385 million. A firm owned by Prince Jefri paid $202 million for the Helmsley Palace hotel in 1993, using BIA funds.
The Bruneian royal aircraft fleet — split between the Sultan and Prince Jefri — contained 10 jets, including a Boeing 747 and an Airbus A-340, according to 1996 insurance documents. A 45-page list of individual recipients shows that scores of people benefited from Prince Jefri’s generosity, from ministers to royal relatives to servants. One of Prince Jefri’s fathers-in-law received $23 million in BIA his badminton coach and acupuncturist each were paid $1.8 million.
Prince Jefri also amassed a world-class art collection. Under his tenure, the BIA paid $24 million for a Manet and $20.5 million for a Renoir, according to records filed in British court. The prince’s favorite, though, was Edgar Degas: “I like the brilliant color and heavy stroke,” he says. He bought at least 21 paintings by the French Impressionist artist, according to court documents.
Prince Jefri seems bewildered by the accusation that he misspent $14.8 billion. “It’s not that easy to hide,” he says. “I keep asking the lawyers, ‘Where did it go?'”
Some of the Rolls Royce cars, he says, were used as a kind of “transport pool” for the 20-odd royal guest houses in Brunei. “We’d provide our guests with a car and a backup car, so they didn’t have to rent from anybody.”
The prince says his brother the Sultan was aware of much of the spending. For example, Prince Jefri says he spent several years building himself a sprawling beachfront palace in Brunei, with a sports complex. “He knew it was built,” the prince says. “My civil list [government allowance] is only $20,000 U.S. per month. You can’t build a house for that.”
Prince Jefri says the Sultan would sometimes come over to his palace after one of their frequent badminton matches, and admire a newly-bought Picasso or Degas on the wall. “He’d say, ‘Nice painting. Could you transfer this today?” to the Sultan’s own palace — a 1,788 room edifice that covers 49 acres.
Messages sent to officials in Brunei and its embassy in Washington seeking comment weren’t returned.
In 1997, depressed oil prices triggered a financial crisis in Brunei. The Sultan’s people brought in Arthur Andersen accountants to comb through the investment agency’s books, leading to Prince Jefri’s ouster.
Prince Jefri doesn’t deny spending some of the BIA’s money, but claims in court documents that the Sultan also received billions of dollars in “Special Transfers” from the government agency to his personal bank accounts. Britain’s Privy Council, in its ruling last year, put the total at $8 billion.
At one point, Prince Jefri said in an affidavit, the Sultan asked him to set up a bank account under a pseudonym, “so that the monies would not be traced to His Majesty or [appear] to have originated from the BIA.” The prince said that $700 million was transferred to the Sultan this way in a single transaction.
Responding to Prince Jefri’s allegations about the Sultan’s finances, a lawyer acting for the Brunei government said in a 2005 affidavit that they were “irrelevant” and didn’t constitute a defense against claims that the prince had purchased assets for his own benefit with state funds.
In May 2000, Prince Jefri agreed to settle the misappropriation charges that Brunei brought against him, avoiding any possibility of criminal prosecution. In return for the prince’s agreement to hand over nearly all of his wealth, the government pledged to let Prince Jefri keep an official and a private residence in Brunei, and agreed to set up a $200 million trust fund to cover certain of his liabilities, but not his living expenses.
Both sides accuse the other of breaching the pact. The Brunei government says Prince Jefri has refused to return the most valuable overseas possessions, including the London villa, a sumptuous residence in Paris’s Place Vend??me, a Cayman Islands trust fund with more than $100 million in cash, and the two U.S. hotels. In total, the assets likely are worth more than $1.5 billion.
Prince Jefri says he shouldn’t have to surrender those assets until he’s sure the Brunei government will live up to its end of the bargain. The government currently controls his homes in Brunei, and there is a dispute over which ones it is obliged to return to the prince. He maintains that his official residence is the beachfront palace he built, known as Assana. The Brunei government disagrees, saying a smaller residence is the prince’s official one.
In any case, Prince Jefri says regaining the Brunei palaces won’t do him much good. In exile since 2004, he says he can’t return to his native land and “it’s hard to sell that kind of house in Brunei.” He’d rather have their value in cash.
Prince Jefri also worries about whether the Brunei government will live up to its promise to pay a big capital-gains tax due from the transfer of the New York Palace Hotel. “I will probably have to go bankrupt” if it doesn’t, he says.
Mr. Marr, the London lawyer, says the Brunei government is obliged under the settlement to cover those taxes “and intends to do so.” He also says he knows of no reason why Prince Jefri can’t return to Brunei.
Prince Jefri’s living expenses are considerable. He’s married to three women and divorced from two others. His fifth wife, the former Claire Kelly, is a New Zealand native. They have two young boys, who live with their mother in St. John’s Lodge, the London villa.
Prince Jefri says he worries about paying for the studies of his many children, some of whom are studying abroad. “Some of the mothers will be able to afford the children, some not.” Court records say that his first four wives received a total of $158 million of BIA funds over the years, although the Brunei government may have reclaimed some of that.
Asked how many mothers there are, the prince starts ticking them off: “There’s one in Singapore, one in the Philippines, one in England, one in Las Vegas….” He counts seven in all. “I just want some income to move on and look after the children,” he says.
On a recent day, Prince Jefri gives a tour of St. John’s Lodge, an imposing white villa dating to the early 19th century, situated inside Regent’s Park. The prince’s polo boots and mallets are laid out on the table in the formal dining room, which could easily seat 40 people. A child’s train set has taken over a sitting room, and strollers are pushed to a corner in the magnificent front hall, where a bodyguard hovers. Portraits of the Sultan and the Sultan’s wife sit on a side table.
“It’s just a matter of time” before the family has to leave, the prince says.
While in Brunei, Prince Jefri says his favorite car to drive was a Ferrari 550, a sleek sports coupe that he would take for a spin late at night when the roads were quiet. Now, he says, “I like the Mini.” He drives a black one around London.
Write to Mark Maremont at
Related article:
Another related article reporting a $500,000 “gift” by Shell to the Sultan of Brunei
Asian Journal: Brunei sultan sends Lear jet to fetch Arroyo
00:19:00(LA) /
16:19:00(Manila)
OFF to the royal wedding they go — in style. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and First Gentleman Jose Miguel “Mike” Arroyo are being flown to Brunei, for the wedding of the oil-rich kingdom’s crown prince this morning, in a Lear Jet 60 sent by their host, the fabulously wealthy Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah. That’s according to a Palace official, who also said the First Couple would be flown back in the same aircraft after the two-day event, tagged Asia’s wedding of the year.
They are scheduled to depart from the Villamor Air Base in Pasay City at 7 a.m. The rest of her delegation will take off an hour earlier, since a Lear Jet 60 has a limited number of seats — seven to eight — to allow for generous space and comfort, and room for baggage that is described as “exceptional.” It is the world’s most popular midsize jet.
Ms Arroyo is one of the heads of state and royals personally invited by Sultan Hassanal to witness his son, Crown Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah Bolkiah, wed half-Swiss commoner Sarah Pengiran Salleh Ab Rahaman.
Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye could not say how big the President’s official party would be, or who would be spending for the trip.
Bunye said Interior Secretary Angelo Reyes, a personal friend of the sultan, was invited but could not make it due to a conflict in schedule.
But the First Couple should go, Bunye said. “First of all the Sultan of Brunei is a very valued friend of the Philippines and it’s not often that you get invited to such an event where the guest list is so limited.???
The Associated Press said 6,000 VIPs from around the world were invited to the royal banquet tomorrow night. They were described by Agence France-Presse as “wealthy and powerful friends of the groom’s father.”
Palace sources said Ms Arroyo would be accompanied by Philippine Consul General to Los Angeles Marciano Paynor Jr., presidential adviser on foreign visits, a handful of security men, and her personal hair stylist Gener Miranda.
A top secret was the presidential wardrobe for the social event. The sources said she might wear the Inno Sotto terno that she wore for her inauguration on June 30 to either the wedding rites or to the banquet. They said she tried on the outfit recently.
“There will be very fashionable guests there, like the Queen of Jordan,” one Palace source noted. But Ms Arroyo looked regal in the green and blue terno that she wore during her inaugural on June 30, the source said.
The aircraft bearing the First Couple is expected to touch down at the Brunei International Airport at 8:50 a.m. They will proceed immediately to the palatial Empire Hotel, where they are billeted.
At around 10 a.m. they will be at the riverside Istana Nurul Imam — the 1,788-room main palace — for the bersanding, or royal wedding rites, a half hour later.
Blue bloods
In Brunei’s capital Bandar Seri Begawan, dignitaries and blue bloods from around the world began arriving yesterday for the lavish nuptials.
“The airport hasn’t been this busy in a while,” said Amin Subehi, a worker at the international airport.
Huge billboards of the wedding couple lined the streets of the usually sleepy capital, where a parade was scheduled after the wedding. Businesses prominently displayed their well-wishes, although some said they were pressured to do so. They would not elaborate, Bruneians being generally reluctant to speak ill of the sultan and his family, who have ruled behind a veil of secrecy for more than 600 years.
The Duke of Gloucester Prince Richard, representing Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II, was the first foreign guest to arrive. He is the only European royal on the VIP list. He came down a staircase from a commercial flight and walked on a red carpet to a limousine on the tarmac.
Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, making his international debut since taking office last month, was also among the earliest arrivals, followed by Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri and Japan’s Crown Prince Naruhito.
The future Japanese emperor jetted in without his wife, Princess Masako. The Imperial Household Agency said in July that Masako, 40, was undergoing treatment after experiencing bouts of depression and anxiety.
Scheduled to arrive later in the day were Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar-Riyadh’s ambassador to Washington — and Prince Saud.
Also on the impressive roster are Bahrain’s King Hamad, Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia and most of Malaysia’s royalty.
The other invited Asian leaders are Prime Ministers Thaksin Shinawatra of Thailand and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi of Malaysia.
Elder statesmen Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, and Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong of Singapore were invited as well.
Although there was no representative from the Thai royal family, they sent a message of congratulations and a gift via the ambassador to Brunei, according to officials in Bangkok.
Malaysian King Syed Sirajuddin, whose five-year term expires in 2007 under the rotating leadership of his country’s largely ceremonial monarchy, is scheduled to arrive tomorrow in time for the royal banquet.
Gracious, intelligent
The 30-year-old Prince Al-Muhtadee Billah is in line to become the 30th sultan in his country’s unbroken chain of succession of rulers. A billiards and snooker enthusiast, he was educated at Oxford, where he took up Islamic studies and a diplomatic course.
His bride, a 17-year-old university student, is “known among her teachers and friends for her grace, intelligence, and positive attitude,” according to the official wedding booklet.
She was born to a Bruneian father and a Swiss nurse, Suzanne Aeby, who met while they were studying in London in the 1970s, officials said.
Although the Muslim nuptials will showcase the Southeast Asian kingdom’s ancient origins, Brunei is one of the region’s smallest countries, and shares Borneo island with Malaysia and Indonesia.
After the wedding rites, which will reportedly take only 15 minutes, the couple will be paraded across the capital in a carriage, accompanied by 105 limousines carrying royal family members.
Fireworks will light up the sky for three nights. The local unit of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has donated 500,000 Brunei dollars (US$292,400; euro 243,700) for the display, and for cultural events to be hosted by popular performers from Malaysia.
Absolute ruler
Sultan Hassanal, 58, is the absolute ruler of his 350,000 subjects.
He was the world’s richest man before the advent of the high-tech era and the rise of mogul Bill Gates and other self-made billionaires — and before a series of financial blunders blamed on his younger brother, Prince Jefri — in the 1990s.
The monarch is also his country’s prime minister, and heads the military and ministries of defense and finance. His Cabinet includes royal family members who stay in several palaces. He lives in the main palace, and is reported to have a private collection of more than 150 Rolls-Royces.
Brunei draws its wealth from oil and gas revenues, and the ruling family’s extravagance is legendary.
This is evident in the pampering of the wedding guests. At the Empire Hotel where many of them — including the Duke of Gloucester, Japan’s Naruhito, Bahrain’s King Hamad, Ms Arroyo and the other Southeast Asian leaders — are booked, the massive columns in the atrium, and the toilet brushes, are gold-plated.
The other guests are staying in equally opulent villas built in 2000 for then US President Bill Clinton and other world leaders when Brunei hosted the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit.
A source familiar with the arrangements said each guest would have his or her own butler. (INQ7)?
Comment in brackets added by John Donovan
Share this:Like this:Like Loading...
Posted in: .
John Donovan’s ebooks
EBOOK TITLE: "SIR HENRI DETERDING AND THE NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL" - AVAILABLE ON AMAZON
EBOOK TITLE: "JOHN DONOVAN, SHELL'S NIGHTMARE: MY EPIC FEUD WITH THE UNSCRUPULOUS OIL GIANT ROYAL DUTCH SHELL" - AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.
EBOOK TITLE: "TOXIC FACTS ABOUT SHELL REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA" - PUBLICATION SCHEDULED FOR DECEMBER 2016.
OVER 240 NEWS ARTICLES AND NEARLY 40 BOOKS, ALL CITING THIS WEBSITE: SEE INFORMATION BELOW
Links to over 240 articles by the FT, Wall Street Journal, Reuters, Bloomberg, Forbes, Dow Jones Newswires etc., and almost 40 books containing references
to this website, or its founders Alfred and John Donovan. Includes TV documentary features in English and German, newspaper and magazine articles, radio interviews, newsletters etc. Plus a selection of academic papers and UK, U.S. and Australian state/parliamentary publications, all citing this website. All in date order. Click on the link at the foot of this column to see the entire 240 plus news articles, again, all in date order.
Head-cut image appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
MADE REDUNDANT AND ROBBED OF TAX BREAKS BY SHELL
ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC FAT CAT CEO, BEN VAN BEURDEN, PAID $30 MILLION IN 2014
DISCLAIMER
This is not a Shell website, nor is it officially endorsed by or affiliated with Royal Dutch Shell.
We operate on a non-profit basis with no subscription charges, no wages, no bonuses, no company pensions and no private jets. In comparison, Royal Dutch Shell Fat Cat Boss, Ben van Beurden, received a financial package worth $30 million USD in 2014.
SHELL PRELUDE TO DISASTER
The links below are to a series of articles, many triggered by a well-placed whistleblower directly involved in the pioneering Royal Dutch Shell Prelude project. Includes articles by Mr Bill Campbell above, the retired distinguished HSE Group Auditor of Shell International and another retired Shell guru with a track record of spotting potential pitfalls in major Shell projects.
SHELL/EXXON INDUCED DUTCH EARTHQUAKES
SHELL ROLE IN NIGERIAN OPL 245 BRIBERY SCANDAL
Whatever fig leaves they might be trying to use to hide the truth, Shell and Eni paid over $1bn to a company called Malabu for the OPL 245 licence. Even though the payment was channelled through the Nigerian government, it was clear that Shell knew that the ultimate beneficiary was Dan Etete, the former minister of petroleum. Etete is the owner of Malabu, to whom he awarded the licence when he was Nigerian Minister of Petroleum.
SHELL’S FAILED $24 BILLION BET ON US SHALE
<img width="190" src="/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Screen-Shot--at-22.14.03-547x1024.jpg"
ROYAL DUTCH SHELL TAX AVOIDANCE
<img width="190" src="/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Screen-Shot--at-16.51.43-652x1024.jpg"
SHELL DEFECTIVE WONDER FUELS
ROYAL DUTCH SHELL PLC LOSSES AND WRITE-OFFS
SHELL&#8217;S EVIL ROLE IN THE &#8220;JUDICIAL MURDER&#8221; OF KEN SARO-WIWA
SHELL &#8220;CLOAK AND DAGGER&#8221; ACTIVITIES
<img width="190" src="/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Screen-Shot--at-23.02.19-544x1024.jpg"
SHELL &#8220;SCREW-UP&#8221; IN THE ARCTIC &#8211; $7BN DOWN THE DRAIN
ROYAL DUTCH SHELL EMPLOYEE DATA BREACH
MORE INFORMATION: Contact ?details ?for ?over 176,000 ?employees? and? contractors? of? Royal? Dutch ?Shell? reached John Donovan and some environmental? and? human? rights? groups,? ostensibly? from? disaffected? Shell staff? calling ?for? a “peaceful? corporate? revolution”? at ?the? company. The ?database,? from? Shell’s? internal? directory, contained? names? and? telephone? numbers? for? all? the company’s? work force? worldwide,? including ?some? home?
numbers. It ?was? supplied? with? a? 170- page? covering? note,? explaining? that? it? was ?being? circulated ?by ?“116 concerned? employees ?of ?Shell ?dispersed? throughout ?the ?USA, ?the ?UK,? and? the? Netherlands”,? to highlight? the? harm ?done ?by ?the? company’s ?operations ?in ?Nigeria.
John Donovan brought the leak to the attention of Shell. Tests proved that the data was authentic and he destroyed the database after being informed by Mr. Richard Wiseman, the then Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, that the confidential information if publicly disclosed, could put Shell employees and contractors in real danger.
NAZI NAMED SHIP HIRED BY SHELL
The campaign waged on this website by John Donovan to persuade Edward Heerema to rename the worlds biggest ship, The Pieter Schelte - which he
named after his late father, Pieter Schelte Heerema, a former Officer in the German Waffen-SS - has been successful. On Friday 6 February 2015, Allseas announced that it was changing the ships name, and on 9 February announced the new name -
Pioneering Spirit.
DOMAIN NAME BATTLE
...WHY SHELL DOESN'T LOVE JOHN DONOVAN
ROYAL DUTCH SHELL EVIL TRACK RECORD
ROYAL DUTCH SHELL INFORMATION
about our co-founder , has aired in many countries. A related
was published in 10 languages.
SHELL PROPPED UP APARTHEID
<img width="190" src="/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Screen-Shot--at-21.28.36.jpg"
March 2008
SHELL BLOG
<img width="190" src="//wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Screen-Shot--at-10.38.57.jpg?w=710"
Safety dudeRelievedHeartbrokenThe Escape CommitteeBill Campbellfrom an old EP handDutchdudeRelievedRelievedGuestRelieved
SHELL OFFICIAL ENDORSEMENT OF THIS WEBSITE
SHELL TOXIC BRANDS
SHELL IP PIRACY
Reading between the lines in various legal documents, it seems that the allegations are that after the technology in question had been disclosed to a Shell company in the USA, the information was passed to Shell in the Netherlands in breach of confidentiality. And Royal Dutch Shell subsequently exploited the technology without payment or credit to the compan Newton Research Partners. The inference seems to be that Twister B.V. was founded by Shell partly on trade secrets stolen from Bloom/Newton.
For more information read:
WEBSITE INFORMATION
DISCLAIMER: This is not a Shell website nor is it officially endorsed by or affiliated with Royal Dutch Shell Plc. Originally co-founded by the
Alfred Donovan and his son John, it is now
operated by John, Shell's
aided by an expert team, with invaluable support from retired Shell senior executives and officials as guest contributors and leaked information from Shell insiders.
(JOHN DONOVAN, WEBSITE OWNER)For nearly a decade, we have operated globally under the Royal Dutch Shell Plc top level domain name, dealing on Shell’s reluctant behalf with job applications, business proposals, Shell pension enquiries, shareholder enquiries, complaints, invitations to speak at conferences, an approach from the Dutch Defence Ministry and even terrorist threats. All meant for Shell. Prospect magazine has aptly described this website as being:
WIPO proceedings by Shell to seize the domain name
NO SUBSCRIPTION CHARGES: All of our watchdog activities monitoring Royal Dutch Shell, including operating this website, are carried out on a non-profit basis. Any advertising revenues generated are used to recover and/or defray operational costs. We are a news aggregator and original content website. All information is available free for educational and research purposes.
SHELL TACIT ENDORSEMENT:
"John and Alfred Donovan well known in UK/Hague. They perceive Shell played them and so have made it their mission to
Shell, which they do quite well. Their website,
is an excellent source of group news and comment and I recommend it far above what our own group internal comms puts out."
WARNING TO SHELL EMPLOYEES: Shell Global Affairs Security "CAS") is trying to trace who is visiting, posting, or leaking information to this website from Shell premises. Threats,
have allegedly been made against conscience driven Shell whistleblowers supplying us with
information. The
as part of a claimed corporate revolution by 116 Shell employees, suggest the espionage operation, threats and draconian litigation have not been entirely successful in cutting off the supply of information to this website.
on the Sakhalin Energy project and We publish our own carefully researched articles about Shell e.g.
Prospect Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Guardian, have all published major articles about us: ; and
SHELL PETROL STATION
displayed in the website header panel are licensed under the .
COPYRIGHT NOTICE: Information on copyright issues .
John Donovan can be contacted at
SHELL&#8217;S $500,000 WEDDING GIFT TO CORRUPT BRUNEI ROYAL FAMILY
EXTRACT FROM ASIAN JOURNAL ARTICLE IN LIST OF LINKS BELOW: "Fireworks will light up the sky for three nights. The local unit of oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has donated 500,000 Brunei dollars (US$292,400; euro 243,700) for the display, and for cultural events to be hosted by popular performers from Malaysia."
BILL CAMPBELL WHISTLEBLOWER EMAIL TO MP&#8217;S
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:
THIS IS WHAT IT SAID:
Subject: This could be the most important whistleblower email you have ever received.
Some unfortunate Royal Dutch Shell workers have already lost their lives. More lives are at stake.
My name is Bill Campbell. I am a former Group Auditor of Shell International. I am writing to you on a matter of conscience in an effort to avert the inevitability of another major accident in the North Sea. The consequences could potentially impact on families in many constituencies, including your own.
As Royal Dutch Shell and the Health & Safety Executive would acknowledge, I am an expert on safety matters relating to offshore oil and gas platforms. In 1999, I was appointed by Shell to lead a safety audit on the Brent Bravo platform. The audit revealed a platform management culture that basically gave a higher priority to production than the safety of Shell employees. To our astonishment we discovered that a "Touch F*** All" policy was in place. Worse still, safety records were routinely falsified and repairs bodged.
I personally brought the shocking situation to the attention of senior management including Malcolm Brinded, the then Managing Director of Shell Exploration & Production. I revealed that ESDV leak-off tests were purposely falsified, not once but many times and that Brent Bravo platform management had admitted responsibility for the dangerous practices being followed. In response to my team ringing alarm bells, management pledged to rectify the serious problems which had been uncovered.
When I later complained that the pledges were not being kept, I was removed from my oversight function.
Four years later, a massive gas leak occurred on the platform. Two workers lost their lives. I have no doubt at all that the inaction of the relevant Asset Manager, the General Manager, the Oil Director and Malcolm Brinded, contributed in some part to the unlawful killing of two persons on Brent Bravo in September 2003.
Shell subsequently pleaded guilty to breaches of the HSE regulations and a record-breaking ?900,000 fine was imposed. I thought this would bring about a real change in policy to put the emphasis on safety.
Unfortunately I was wrong. Although I supplied the evidence related to 1999, and the fact that there had been a collapse in controls of integrity from 1999 to 2003 on all 16 of Shell's North Sea offshore installations covered in a post fatality integrity review to the HSE for review by the Procurator Fiscal, none of this evidence was presented before the Sheriff at the subsequent Inquiry. The situation is explained in a letter to the Procurator Fiscal and the Sheriff (on 24th February 2007).
Shell management has engaged in spin to try to pretend that it is getting to grips with its safety problem. However, its atrocious safety record - the worst in the North Sea in terms of accidental deaths and absolute number of enforcement actions – tells a different story. This fact has resulted in a number of newspaper articles.
I have had meetings with senior Shell people including its CEO Mr. Jeroen van der Veer. I regret to say that I have found him to be economical with the truth. He prefers to support cover-up and deceit rather than confronting the underlying problems. Brinded is now Executive Director of Shell Exploration & Production. He believes in burying evidence.
My family and friends would probably prefer me to give up on this matter and enjoy my retirement after so many years working for Shell.
However, by writing to every MP in the UK, no one can ever say that I did not do my best to avert an inevitable further major accident event in the North Sea. When it happens (I pray that I am wrong) I will make this warning communication available to the media together with the vast amount of evidence in my possession.
At least my conscience is clear. I have done everything possible to ring the alarm bells about Shell management and its unscrupulous attitude to the safety of its employees.
Yours sincerely
Bill Campbell
(Malcolm Brinded and Jeroen van der Veer are no longer with Shell. The Oil Director referred to in the email is Chris Finlayson, who left Shell to become Chief Executive of British Gas before being fired - his photo immediately below)
SHELL ROLE IN SAUDI ARABIA/AL YAMAMAH BAE ARMS SCANDAL
SHELL SAKHALIN2 DEBACLE
SHELL PERSECUTION OF DR JOHN HUONG
SHELL RESERVES FRAUD
SIR PHILIP WATTS, THE GROUP CHAIRMAN OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL GROUP, FORCED TO RESIGN IN 2004
Shell’s reputation was destroyed in 2004 after
to its hydrocarbon reserves covering 55% of its total reserves. US and UK financial regulators imposed
on Shell for securities fraud. Shell was also rocked by
and Walter van de Vijver (whose headcut images appear courtesy of The Wall Street Journal) were among the Shell executives forced to resign. More details at the foot of this column.
MORE DETAILS: The Shell reserves scandal brought about
in its original form as an Anglo-Dutch partnership.
Shell Transport & Trading Co and Royal Dutch Petroleum were unified into a single Dutch owned company - Royal Dutch Shell Plc.
Sir Philip
and is now a very wealthy priest after receiving a payoff/pension package from Shell reportedly worth $18.5 million. Walter van de Vijver in contrast was the victim of a
by his Shell senior management backstabbing colleagues.
Daily Telegraph:
9 January 2004
The Times:
10 January 2004
The West Australian:
12 January 2004
London Evening Standard:
19 April 2004
Houston Chronicle: 19 April 2004
Bloomberg:
19 April 2004
19 April 2004
The Guardian:
20 April 2004
The Guardian:
20 April 2004
The Independent:
20 April 2004
The Scotsman:
20 April 2004
The Times:
20 April 2004
Financial Times: Observer Column: Shell-shocked:
20 April 2004
Minneapolis Star Tribune:
20 April 2004
Daily Telegraph:
20 April 2004
The Scotsman:
21 April 2004
TheStarOnline:
21 April 2004
Daily Telegraph:
21 April 2004
Daily Telegraph:
22 April 2004
The Times: 23 April 2004
Daily Telegraph:
24 April 2004
The Mail On Sunday:
25 April 2004
Daily Mail:
26 April 2004
Daily Telegraph:
23 May 2004
Daily Telegraph:
25 May 2004
Daily Telegraph:
28 May 2004
London Evening Standard:
26 June 2004
as Claims Deadline Passes: 5 November 2010
by John Donovan
Displayed below are some of the spectacular promotional campaigns my company Don Marketing created for Shell in the 1980s and 1990s. This was before the series of SIX high court actions we brought against Shell for stealing ideas (4) and for defamation (2) - all settled by Shell. This website is a permanent response by me to the malicious underhand tactics, including treachery, espionage and intimidation, used by Shell during and after the bouts of litigation. More information is printed at the foot of this column.
MORE DETAILS: After a solicitor acting for Shell threatened to make the litigation "drawn out and difficult" with the intention of draining the resources of a financially weaker opponent, my late father (Alfred Donovan) and I decided to mount a wide-ranging campaign as a counter-measure. We jointly founded the Shell Corporate Conscience Pressure Group, which nearly 15% of Shell UK retailers joined. We regularly conducted ethical surveys involving up to 1500 Shell petrol stations. All responses were opened and authenticated by an independent solicitor who supplied Affidavits confirming the results. In whole page announcements in trade magazines (examples above) we challenged Shell to commission and publish the resuits of independent research asking the same questions and offering respondents GUARANTEED anonymity. Shell never took up the invitation. Instead it asked the UK Advertising Standards Authority to investigate our Shell surveys. No problems were found. The head-cut image of Alfred Donovan appears courtesy of The Wall Street Journal.
SHELL CONTROVERSIES
selection of memorable warnings/articles/images associated with the controversial track record of Royal Dutch Shell.
WARNING: DO NOT DISCLOSE YOUR IDEAS TO SHELL GameChanger OR SHELL Ideas360 WITHOUT TAKING EVERY POSSIBLE PRECAUTION. Shell management has ample funds to pay for intellectual property but prefers to steal it from small businesses and in our experience, gives its full backing to dishonest managers willing to do its bidding. We have
sued Shell repeatedly in the High Court for the theft of our Intellectual Property. It is doubtful if anyone can match our dire experience in dealing with this ruthless unscrupulous serial poacher of other parties ideas.
Expect threats, legal machinations and sinister action from Shell and its spooks if you object to having your ideas stolen.
LINKS TO SOME RELATED ARTICLES:
Some years ago extensive documentary evidence was brought to the attention of Malcolm Brinded above, when he was Chairman of Shell UK, proving beyond any doubt that Shell executives had conspired to rig a tender for a major contract. A number of innocent firms were deliberately lured into signing confidentiality agreements and disclosing Intellectual Property to Shell under false pretences, in a carefully contrived plot. The firm which was awarded the contract never took part in the tender. One objective of the Machiavellian plan was to stop/delay IP trade secrets owned by the participants in the tender from being disclosed to Shell's rivals. This was achieved by outright deception, without paying a cent to the firms involved, who wrongly believed they were participating in an honest tender. Instead of sacking the ring leader, AJL - who had a personal relationship with the firm which miraculously won the race in which it never ran - Shell senior directors, including Brinded, gave AJL their full backing. Some of the Shell executives involved, including for example, Tim Hannagan, still hold high positions inside Shell - in his case, Global Brand and Visual Identity Manager. If Shell does not accept that this is a true, provable account of what happened, then it should sue for libel. How on earth is such predatory conduct compatible with Shell's claimed business principles?
FOR MORE INFORMATION, READ THIS ARTICLE:
Categories
NAZI HISTORY OF ROYAL DUTCH SHELL
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.
MORE INFORMATION
Shell appeased and collaborated with the Nazis. The oil giant instructed its employees in the Netherlands to complete a form giving particulars about their descent, which for some, amounted to a self-declared death warrant. Shell used slave labor and was a close business partner in Germany of I.G. Farben, the notorious Nazi run chemical giant that also used slave labor and supplied the Zyklon-B gas used during the Holocaust to exterminate millions of people, including children. Shell continued the partnership with the Nazis in the years after the retirement of Sir Henri and even after his death. It was money generated on Shell forecourts around the world, profiteering from cartel oil prices, that funded the Nazi party and saved it from financial collapse. Evidence about Shell's Nazi connections can be found in extracts from "A History of Royal Dutch Shell" Volumes
authored by historians paid by Shell, who had unrestricted access to Shell archives. There are 67 pages in total, so takes some time to download.
Photograph shows a Swastika flag flying at the head office of Royal Dutch Petroleum, 30 Carel van Bylandtlaan, The Hague, during the Nazi occupation of the in World War II (From Image Database Hague Municipal)
Sir Henri Deterding, the founder of the Royal Dutch Shell Group - known as "The Most Powerful Man in the World" - who became an ardent Nazi and financial supporter of Hitler and the Nazi party.
Send to Email Address
Your Email Address
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.
%d bloggers like this:}