To its credit Shell has not given in to the subsequent money demands, but neither has it apparently reported the matter to the Irish Police. One can see the difficulty. How do you go about asking the Irish police to investigate a blackmail plot over free alcohol worth over €35,000 given to the Irish Police accused of being “Shell’s Cops” and acting brutally towards people protesting against the controversial project?
JOHN DONOVAN EMAIL TO SUPERINTENDENT PATRICK DISKIN OF THE IRISH POLICE, THE GARDA
From: John Donovan
Subject: OSSL BLACKMAIL PLOT AGAINST SHELL
Date: 16 November 2014 20:43:08 GMT
Cc: michiel.brandjes@shell.com, Ed Vulliamy
, Lorna Siggins , Dan Griffin , Áine Ryan , Paul O’Donoghue , “Boucher-Hayes, Philip” , Olga Cronin , Erlend Skarsaune
To: patrick.diskin@garda.ie
Dear Superintendent Patrick Diskin
I am writing to report what appears to be a determined blackmail operation currently being carried out against the Corrib Gas Project, which is led by Shell. The project consortium consists of Shell, Statoil and Vermilion.
Mr Andy Sanderson of Statoil has recently confirmed that Shell acts for Statoil in the matters discussed in this email.
HUNDREDS OF MONEY DEMANDS/BLACKMAIL NOTES
The most recent money demand was sent on Friday, 14 November 2014.
The demands are emailed almost every day, frequently even on Sundays.
Hundreds have been sent, as is confirmed in writing by Shell.
Printed below is a partial list of the recipients of Friday’s blackmail/money demand, which took the form of an email with graphics.
Bridget Lowe – Head of Shell Legal Ireland
Iain Middleton – Shell CP lead for Upstream and Downstream Major Projects in Europe
Michael B Coats – Shell UK Head of Legal and Associate General Counsel
Donny Ching – Legal Director Royal Dutch Shell Plc
Christy Loftus – Shell Ireland Communications
Mary Carolan - Shell Community Liaison Officer Ireland
Andy Sanderson – Statoil
Gerald Schut – Vermilion
Tracey Murray – a solicitor representing clients alleged to have received gifts
Marc Fitzgibbon – a solicitor representing OSSL present at meetings with Michael Crothers, CEO of Irish Shell, when the subject which has become the main focus of the alleged extortion plot, was discussed and dealt with by Shell.
MONEY DEMANDS SENT TO TOP EXECUTIVES AT SHELL
The demands have also been sent over a long period to the top executives at Shell who have directly discussed them with the leader of the apparent blackmail operation, Mr Desmond Kane. I refer to Mr Peter Voser, the Royal Dutch Shell CEO until the end of 2013, his successor, Mr Ben van Beurden, and the Chairman of the company, Mr Jorma Ollila. These direct discussions, which took place not by phone or email, but in person, were, unbeknown to Mr Kane, recorded and transcribed by Shell. Perfectly properly under the circumstances involved.
DEATH THREATS
As you may recall, we last corresponded in April 2011 in relation to an investigation of alleged death threats made to Shell whistleblowers working inside the same project, who supplied me with numerous Corrib Project internal emails for publication on my website.
OSSL MONEY DEMANDS
What appear to be completely unjustified money demands are being made by Mr Desmond Kane and Mr Neil Rooney, both currently residing in the UK, via their County Mayo based company OSSL. Shell, its executives, managers and officials have been bombarded with money demands from OSSL claiming payment for alcohol supplied to the Garda as Christmas gifts by OSSL on behalf of their then client, Shell.
The underlying threat – the hold which OSSL/Kane/Rooney have over Shell – is to publicly prove that Shell, acting on its own behalf and on behalf of its project partners, used OSSL to distribute gifts in connection with the troubled project, that could be construed as bribes. The main and potentially most damaging allegation is in relation to over €35,000 worth of alcohol delivered to the Garda as a Christmas thank you for battling protesters.
FULL AND FINAL SETTLEMENT
Evidence shows that Shell has already paid for all outstanding goods supplied by OSSL as part of an all claims full and final settlement with Messrs Kane and Rooney some two years ago. 22 days after the all-embracing final settlement, OSSL begun issuing further money demands, apparently believing that they still had a powerful hold over Shell, so strong and potentially damaging that Shell would pay up again to stop the potential scandal being proved as fact, rather than mere allegations.
The relevant full and final settlement and subsequent money demands were referred to in a letter dated 28 May 2013 to Clare Daly TD from Mr Michael Crothers, the CEO/Chairman and Managing Director of Shell E&P Ireland Limited. Both subjects, the full and final settlement and the subsequent money demands contained in literally “hundreds of emails” are referred to in more detail within a letter from Shell E&P Ireland to Mr Kane dated 3 October 2014.
DUBIOUS INVOICE
The same letter also makes reference to being invoiced for payment by OSSL. The invoice in question was mentioned in a related article by Mr Ed Vulliamy published by The Observer newspaper in August 2013 under the headline
“Strange tale of Shell’s pipeline battle, the Gardaí and £30,000 of booze.” The Garda station where you are now located – Bellmullet – was mentioned in the article as the Garda station where alcohol was delivered by OSSL as a festive gift from Shell.
The invoice, which was partly for the alcohol delivery to Bellmullet Garda station in 2007, was raised and sent to Shell in August 2012, five years later. Its existence is confirmed in the letter Shell sent to Mr Kane on 3 October 2014.
It claims €35,475.00 plus €8,159.25 for VAT from Shell, making a total of €43,634.25 for alcohol delivered to the Garda. Other precise information is detailed.
If the allegations about the alcohol were false then there must be a criminal offense incurred in issuing a fake invoice demanding money for goods that did not exist and consequently could not have been delivered: In the UK that would be a case of demanding money under false pretenses.
If the allegations are true and a consignment of the alcohol was delivered to your station, then OSSL still had no legal grounds to raise an invoice when Shell had already entered into a full and final settlement covering all goods supplied and all possible claims, known or unknown.
I raised issues over of the
fake invoice well over a year ago, but for some reason, the Garda and the Garda Ombudsman had no interest in it and claimed there was no evidence, when clearly evidence did exist and is now expanded as a result of recent developments.
The invoice is the key piece of evidence indicating criminal wrongdoing of one kind or another. The invoice should have been subjected to scrutiny in the five investigations carried out thus far – three by the Garda and two by Shell.
It is possible that OSSL received an inflated full and final settlement because of the pressure applied before the August 2012 settlement: Hence the reluctance by the consortium to pay again.
To its credit Shell has not given in to the subsequent money demands, but neither has it apparently reported the matter to the Irish Police. One can see the difficulty. How do you go about asking the Irish police to investigate a blackmail plot over free alcohol worth over €35,000 given to the Irish Police accused of being “Shell’s Cops” and acting brutally towards people protesting against the controversial project?
I have provided links to my recent articles about these matters, which themselves contain links to evidence confirming that the alcohol did exist and was discussed in the presence of Dublin solicitor Marc Fitzgibbon with senior people at Shell, including Mr Michael Crothers.
All of the signs are that Shell knows the game is up. Hence the frantic activity at my stated intention to publish a recording of a 42 minute meeting between OSSL and their solicitor Marc Fitzgibbon, which I have done without repercussion thus far, despite threats from Mr Fitzgibbon.
He claims that the evidence arising from his meeting with Mr Kane and Mr Rooney is protected by client privilege, confidentiality and the Data Protection Act. That might be the case if it had not all been deliberately supplied to me by his paying client in the belief that it would further their campaign. I do not think OSSL properly considered the ramifications of what was disclosed and how that new information would add to the suspicions I already had about their activities.
I have reported these matters to the Frances FitzGerald, the Irish Justice Minister, but thus far have not received even an acknowledgement. I have heard that Garda internal affairs have been called in but do not know if this is true.
I did indicate that I saw little point in asking the Garda to investigate, but have decided to formally request an investigation into potential criminal activity, which I am now doing on the record and will notify all TD’s and Senators accordingly.
Mr Kane categorically denies the blackmail allegations but although given the opportunity, has not provided a credible explanation of the legal basis on which the OSSL money demands are being made.
Kind regards
John Donovan
