As you know, Mr. Speir left the Department of Energy before the Mobil settlement. After leaving Energy, he worked for a consulting firm which was retained by the Department of Justice to analyze sales contracts for both the Johnson v. Shell case and for a gas royalty underpayment case. Although Mr. Speir worked primarily on the gas sales contracts, had we known of his relationship with POGO, we likely would have not permitted him to work on either of these matters. Indeed, shortly after we learned of the payments, we terminated his participation in these cases. Finally, Madame Chairwoman, I would like to note that many of the defendants in the Johnson v. Shell case have chosen to settle rather than dispute the allegations of royalty underpayments.
Additional settlements are under discussion.
Our own decisions to intervene against certain defendants in the oil and gas royalty underpayment cases were made independent of any views of Robert Berman or Robert Speir, and we believe that those decisions were correct. Department counsel did discuss the allegations in the case with Messrs. Berman and Speir, at a time when the Department had no knowledge that they were possibly considering attempting to benefit personally from this type of information. Our ultimate decision to intervene, however, was based on our own analysis and on the recommendation by the Solicitor of the Department of the Interior, and not on any information that we obtained from Messrs. Berman or Speir. In sum, while we share the Committee's concern about these payments, we firmly believe that the integrity of the underlying case was in no way compromised.