In his ebook, ‘John Donovan, Shell’s Nightmare’, there are allegations that senior executive of Royal Dutch Shell and AJL were involved in a contract rigging.
John Donovan is the co-founder of Royal Dutch Shell Plc.com, a blog that covers news about the oil giant. According to the blog, he has a relationship with Shell stretching back decades. He was the co-founder of a sales promotion company, Don Marketing, that worked closely with Shell on an international basis.
He alleged in the book that AJL arranged for the same favored agency to miraculously win a SMART contract that had been put out to tender, even though they never took part in the tender. This was analogous to a horse winning a race in which it did not run.
I found irrefutable evidence in discovery that AJL had masterminded the rigging of the tender process. The conspiracy involved other Shell staff, including his line manager and, at least, one senior executive still employed by Shell, Mr. Tim Hannigan.
They deliberately connived to obtain confidential information from several companies under false pretenses. The companies were lured into the closing stages of a contract tender process. They were enticed into confidentiality agreements, again under false pretenses.
AJL turned the whole process into a plot to steal information from participants in the tender, when by that stage they had no prospect of winning the Project Hercules(Smart) contract in question.
Despite the damning evidence, Senior Shell executives, including a Shell Managing Director Malcolm Brinded, gave AJL their full backing when I bought the rigged tender process to their attention.
The following is an extract from page 69 of a Witness Statement AJL signed on 8 April 1999 when he mentioned the unreserved support he received from the highest levels:
“Such behaviour has caused me much stress and has only been tolerable because of the unreserved support I have received from Shell management to the highest levels as well as my colleagues, and because I am confident of our position.”
The blog said Shell later settled the high court litigation I brought in relation to SHELL SMART (Project Hercules. With regards to Malcolm Brinded, he has played key roles in a number of major Shell scandals, including OPL 245.