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No wonder the Press is not allowed to follow Rex on his World Tour — there’s no telling what they might discover by seeing who he contacts, what he promises, what industries he promotes ...
www.nbcnews.com/...
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It details Tillerson's financial holdings — including numerous stock holdings in U.S., European and Asian companies.
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His largest holdings overall are in Exxon stock and financial instruments including mutual funds and indexed funds. In total, Tillerson has at least $200 million in Exxon-related holdings.
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No wonder Rex has been so reluctant to meet with the Press — there’s no telling what they might discover by asking him about his history at Exxon.
www.usatoday.com/...
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One of the knottiest problems Tillerson faced, if confirmed, was what to do about more than 2 million deferred ExxonMobil shares he would have received over the next 10 years. In an agreement with the company's board of directors, those shares will be converted into about $180 million in cash and held in an independently managed trust. He would forfeit the money to charity should he work again in the oil and gas industry during those 10 years.
Tillerson, who retired Dec. 31, also agreed to sell 600,000 shares he owns once he is confirmed. He loses about $7 million in bonuses and share value in the deal, but he gains the public's confidence that his actions as secretary of State would not be self-enriching.
Watch this little trick regarding Tillerson’s 600,000 Exxon Shares: “once he is confirmed” has suddenly become “by May 2”.
And there’s a shiny-new “Get out of Press scrutiny Card” too, called “a written waiver” …
www.buzzfeed.com/...
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But still to be dealt with were the 600,000 shares that Tillerson owned outright at the time of his nomination. In his ethics plan, Tillerson said he would be divested of them within 90 days.
On Tuesday, a State Department spokesman said Tillerson remained committed to fully divesting of the stock by May 2.
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Immediately after his promise to divest by May 2, Tillerson in his letter on ethics undertaking said he would not participate in anything that could affect the value of that stock while he still held it.
“I will not participate personally and substantially in any particular matter that to my knowledge has a drrect [sic] and predictable effect on the financial interests of ExxonMobil until I have divested this stock, unless I first obtain a written waiver,” he wrote.
Trump is promoting both Rex’s and his own “self interest” with this market-moving Tweet:
… because behind every Trump Tweet, the devious intentions of Machiavelli-savant are somewhere lurking … Greed will find a way.
themarketmogul.com/...
Back in 2012, ExxonMobil and Rosneft struck a deal for a joint venture worth around $500bn. The venture revolves around developing reserves in the Arctic Kara Sea, the Black Sea and some onshore assets in Siberia, all of which are said to be very oil rich. A US Geological Survey estimates that there could be around 400 billion barrels of oil equivalents in the wider Arctic region.
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The Sanctions
The deal, which had looked so promising, was jeopardised in 2014 when Russia invaded Crimea. In the aftermath, the sanctions against Russia put the deal on hold. [...]
He [Tillerson] has been involved in various deals between the two oil giants over the last two decades – first in 1999 and later in 2011. The deal in 2011, worth $3.2bn, gave Exxon permission to develop offshore oil fields in the Russian Arctic, while Rosneft was given stakes in a number of US-based projects. The deal was a success up to that point but fell through following the sanctions, which prompted Tillerson to condemn them, saying that they caused “broad collateral damage”.
One Question: Whose “collateral” will remain “damaged” — if the sanctions against Russia aren’t promptly lifted?
This goal has been on Tillerson’s To-do List, ever since a March 2014 shareholder meeting, where he as CEO of Exxon, said this about the “bump in the road” known as the Crimea invasion …
www.politico.com/...
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“There has been no — I mean to this point, the current situation obviously is early days — no impact on any of our plans or activities at this point,” Tillerson said during a March 5 analyst meeting. “Nor would we expect there to be any, barring governments taking steps that are beyond our control.”
Suddenly those “government steps” are no longer … “beyond their control”. Go Figure!
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Just imagine what the announcement of a grand Russian-American Arctic Oil Exploration project will do to the price of Exxon Shares, IF Rex can “re-forge” such a Deal; if only the “handshakes” can be struck before that pesky due date of May 2nd, 2017 — so much the better for our silence-is-golden Secretary of State!
www.politico.com/...
Putin even awarded Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson the Order of Friendship, one of Russia’s highest honors, for the company’s “big contribution to developing cooperation in the energy sector.”
Let the Windfall Game begin … and that “very mean” U.S. Press is NOT invited. Period!
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