The Association of Oil and Gas Exploration Companies in Israel is threatening to sue Prof. Eytan Sheshinski for libel, unless he retracts comments allegedly made yesterday at a UBS investors conference in Tel Aviv.
The Association's attorney, Adv. Ram Caspi said in a letter to Sheshinski that the media quoted him as saying that the gas exploration companies, "recognize expenses in a very liberal way, and pad other drilling costs, so that the companies effectively pay the state nothing. This is a real Ponzi scheme. They pad and pad expenses. Bernie Madoff would be proud of them."
Caspi said that these comments, if Sheshinski actually made them, are "groundless" and "even more serious coming from a man in your position, who heads an important public commission" that is currently discussing the reservations of the oil and gas exploration companies to the Sheshinski committee's interim recommendations.
Caspi said, "In view of these comments attributed to you, you are unfit to continue serving as the chairman of a commission whose function is to discuss and hear the positions of my clients with an open mind and clear conscious." He concludes by demanding that Sheshinski immediately deny the slanderous report, if he did not actually make the comments, or publicly apologize to the members of the Association of Oil and Gas Exploration Companies, and their investors, if he did make them.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on December 14, 2010
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