The False Claims Act works - Times Republican
Four decades ago, on Oct. 27, 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed into law my bipartisan updates to the False Claims Act. At the time, I never imagined this sharpened Civil War-era tool would rec...
“If Shell’s history were a movie, it’d be banned in most democracies.”
It started with a letter.
It ended with sirens in The Hague.
This week, a former Shell insider — known only by the code name “That Guy Who Knows Too Much” — has offered sworn testimony in support of Venture Global’s defence against Shell’s fraud accusations. But the real headline? He’s not testifying about Venture Global.
He’s testifying about Shell.
Specifically: Shell’s integrity, a concept he describes as “fictional,” “strategically suspended,” and “last seen around 1973.”
“Let me be clear,” the witness wrote, “this isn’t just about LNG. This is about a company whose understanding of ‘fair competition’ once included undercover agents, black-bag burglaries, and corporate espionage so convoluted it gave MI6 whiplash.”
Among the items he’s ready to reveal:
Shell-paid informants planted in NGOs and activist groups
By co-incidence or otherwise, staged burglaries at the homes of opposition lawyers and witnesses
Surveillance operations targeting journalists
Courtroom manipulations and deception, including inventing evidence that did not exist
A persistent ability to lose documents right before disclosure deadlines, often citing “a mild offshore breeze”
While Shell’s public image smiles through green rebrandings and rainbow-washed logos, this witness alleges the company’s black-ops...
Four decades ago, on Oct. 27, 1986, President Ronald Reagan signed into law my bipartisan updates to the False Claims Act. At the time, I never imagined this sharpened Civil War-era tool would rec...