Oil Deals: Dutch Court Clears Obstacle To Prosecution Of Shell

A Dutch court has rejected Shell’s claim that documents seized during a raid on the company’s offices cannot be used as evidence by prosecutors due to legal professional privilege, an NGO, Human and Environment Development Agenda (HEDA) has said.
The organisation said yesterday in Lagos that Shell had argued that emails and other documents generated by the company’s 15 internal lawyers constituted legal advice and must therefore be excluded in any trial of the company over alleged corruption in its dealings in Nigeria in relation to the OPL 245 oil deal.
“The court in Rotterdam rejected this argument, arguing that, in fraud and corruption cases, legal professional privilege applies only to advice from external lawyers,’’ it said in the statement made available to The Tide’s source
According to the court, Shell’s internal lawyers cannot be considered independent and their advice is not therefore subject to the usual rules of confidentiality.
“The ruling is a major victory for the Dutch prosecutors who are investigating corruption allegations surrounding Shell’s acquisition (with the Italian oil giant Eni) of the controversial OPL 245 oil field.
“Shell cannot hide behind the professional secrecy of employees of its legal department in corruption and fraud investigations. The Rotterdam court reached that conclusion in a judgment published Friday afternoon.
“The court sweeps the floor with Shell’s argument that the 15 lawyers who are employed by the oil company in the Netherlands can invoke their professional secrecy.
“The reason for the judgment, which can have far-reaching consequences for major criminal cases, is a judicial investigation into bribery by Shell in Nigeria.
“In this investigation, financial investigation service FIOD-ECD invaded in February 2016 at the Shell head office in The Hague.