William Tauzin: “this matter involves two things: the first is the facts, so let us get the facts straight. We are talking about a…”

“this matter involves two things: the first is the facts, so let us get the facts straight. We are talking about a whistleblower lawsuit on royalty valuations that amounted to about a $400 million claim. It was not brought by POGO. This whistleblower lawsuit was brought by a whistleblower by the name of Johnson. Johnson filed suit against Shell. Johnson was entitled, under the whistleblower statute, to 17 to 20 percent of the winnings if this whistleblower suit won. Now, we have these things in Louisiana a lot. The oil companies fight with our State over oil royalty and gas royalty valuations all the time. Some are legitimate disputes; some are not so legitimate. Johnson brought a suit claiming illegitimate royalty valuations, and Johnson the whistleblower suddenly finds out that POGO gets in its lawsuit and wants a share of the take. POGO in fact weasels its way into that lawsuit and gets about a $7 million share of the take. How did POGO get in the lawsuit? POGO got in the lawsuit, we are told, our investigators tell us, because two Federal employees apparently knew about this sealed lawsuit, called their friends at POGO, got them into the lawsuit, and cut a deal to get one-third of the take. Two Federal employees cut a deal, apparently, with POGO, to each take one-third of $7 million, to get POGO a share of Mr. Johnson's whistleblower lawsuit. That is what the allegations are.…”