(CNN) -- The former president of Shell Oil USA didn't candy-coat it: America's political fund-raising system, he said, amounts to legalized extortion. "I feel extorted," John Hofmeister told CNN's Drew Griffin. "Every time I wrote a check I felt that it was a form of extortion, the price of entry, because of the reception that you got when you contributed versus the reception when you did not contribute." Hofmeister, who ran Shell Oil USA from 2005 through 2008, said he was constantly being asked for political donations, by members of both parties. It's against Shell Oil policy, he said, for corporate contributions to be made. So any donations came out of his own pocket -- something, he said, he felt forced to do.
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CNN investigates Capitol Hill fund-raising and political influence
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Ex-oil exec says it's a legal "pay to play" system for access to lawmakers
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Author says politicians should not be allowed to leverage their position to extract donations
Hofmeister said he and other oil executives were summoned to more than a dozen @placeholder hearings in 2008 when the retail price of gasoline began to skyrocket.
CNN took a look around @placeholder during a single day last November.