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By Joshua Schneyer and Brian Grow
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Oil driller Continental Resources Inc has been revising its corporate history in ways that diminish the publicly traded company's accomplishments under CEO Harold Hamm, part of a legal strategy that might help Hamm avoid the largest divorce award in U.S. history.
Downplaying his role in Continental's success is central to Hamm's chances of minimizing the financial blow from his divorce, lawyers say.
Under Oklahoma state law, if Hamm can show that market conditions – rather than his management prowess – drove the rise in Continental's stock value during their marriage, he won't have to share those gains with his estranged wife, Sue Ann. The two never signed a prenuptial agreement. Testimony in the trial continues this week in the county courthouse here.
Hamm, 68, is a former energy adviser to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and one of America's wealthiest men. Sue Ann Hamm, 58, is a former lawyer at Continental. Attorneys following the Hamm divorce say a judgement could award Sue Ann Hamm about $3 billion (1.83 billion pounds).
Reuters compared Continental's current corporate website – www.contres.com – with a version from early this year. The analysis was done using the Internet Archive Wayback Machine, a repository of past web pages.
The comparison identified 18 separate items that had been recently deleted, added or revised.
The changes included altering a claim that the company was first to "discover" an important oil field near the massive formation known as the Bakken Shale.
DATES AND DELETIONS
Another change involved adding a new claim about the company's hugely profitable decision to shift its exploration focus from natural gas to oil. Now, the website shows the key decision came in 1985 – three years before the Hamms were married in 1988. If the shift to oil came prior to the Hamm marriage, then Sue Ann may not be entitled to reap part of the reward.
Last month, Harold Hamm testified that he only recently discovered inaccurate claims on the website, and ordered Continental's staff to change them.
The company also removed a notable passage from one of its U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings, key documents used by investors to evaluate firms.
In 2013 and earlier years, the annual proxy statement described Harold Hamm as "one of the driving forces" behind Continental's success, a man who had "successfully grown the Company through his leadership skills and business judgement." That passage was dropped in the 2014 proxy.
(More examples can be seen in a longer version of this article, at http://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/revised-company-history-may-help-oil-baron-avoid-record-divorce-payout/ )
At stake in the divorce is the $17.2 billion piece of Continental owned by Harold through his 68 percent holding in the company's publicly traded shares. Legal experts interviewed for this article said the changes on the website appear to be part of his strategy.
The purpose, they say, is to persuade the judge that the surge in Continental's share value has had little to do with Harold's deft management during his 26-year marriage to Sue Ann. According to state law, if the growth of Continental was "passive" – that is, owing to market factors beyond Harold's control rather than to his skill and effort – he won't have to share those gains.
"The company may be framing Mr. Hamm's impact as less important than it had before," said Ilan Hirschfeld, head of the marital dissolution practice at accounting and advisory firm Marcum LLP. Hirschfeld isn't involved in the case.
A spokeswoman for Continental Resources, Kristin Miskovsky, declined to comment about the website changes or the role of Continental's board in reviewing them. Attorneys representing the Hamms are under court order not to discuss protected information in the case. They declined to comment.
(This version of the story has been repeated to add correct website link)
(Edited by Blake Morrison)