Shell recently did exactly what the executives at Enron did. So the governor of California, the state and regional Water Boards and the Riverside District Attorney trust Shell to tell them the truth about a single test that could cause Shell to have to test some number of 13,000 former Texaco stations? How flawed is their thinking? You can read about the scandal in detail in this book. "The authors start with the company’s recent Enron-like crisis where bosses knowingly overstated reserves – and therefore the company value – for four years. Shell wanted to continue with this policy and provide the public with ‘an external story line and investor relations script’. But this book lifts the lid on the story and many other episodes in the company’s unprincipled history." The book is here.
"In March 2004 Watts, Van der Vijver and Judith Boynton, the chief financial officer, resigned. Shell's investigations revealed overbookings in 100 of its 300 biggest fields. The eventual fallout included four more restatements and $240 million in fines and civil settlements. Shell has reserved $500 million in anticipation of settling a U.S. class action brought by investors." - Forbes