LONDON (Alliance News) - Sefton Resources Inc Friday said that Chief Financial Officer Raylene Whitford has resigned from the board of directors, but will remain in the role in a non-board capacity.
The company said that Whitford resigned "for personal reasons", which comes after it was revealed last week that Sefton had received a requisition from a group of shareholders including former Interim Chairman Daniel Levi for an extraordinary general meeting to remove Whitford as well as non-executive directors Tom Milne and Keith Morris from the company.
They also called to appoint Clement Chambers as interim chief executive officer and Michael Hodges as a non-executive director of the company. Chambers and Hodges are co-founders and CEO and executive chairman, respectively, of financial information website ADVFN PLC.
Levi, formerly known as David John Hopkins, left the company in April, and after his departure an article in The Times newspaper detailed Hopkins' criminal record as a convicted armed robber. Sefton denied it had any prior knowledge of his criminal record, and said that by not disclosing his previous name, Levi had breached the rules of AIM.
Levi made the requisition alongside Christopher Williams and Charnjit Matharu, who collectively hold an 11.29% interest in the company. Sefton noted that Williams was subject to a ruling by the panel of takeovers and mergers in May in relation to his activity in the shares of New World Oil and Gas PLC.
Shares in New World Oil and Gas were suspended in May following issues that arose after the company conducted a placing and open offer that led to confusion over the company's shareholding when it said that Judith Williams, a new investor, had purchased over 342.3 million shares in the company. It was reported by the Mail Online that the share purchase had actually been made by her son Christopher Williams, who thought he was only purchasing a 10% stake in the company before realising that his mother may be required to launch a full offer for the company.
The board of Sefton Resources said last week that it believes that shareholders' best interests are best served by the continuance of its current strategy, and that it does not believe shareholders would be best served by supporting the proposed resolution.
Sefton also is embroiled in a legal battle with its former executive chairman, which it has said is trying "force the company into bankruptcy proceedings". The company's former executive chairman, Jim Ellerton, initiated legal proceedings against the company in May and in July filed documentation to the US Bankruptcy Court for the District of Colorado. This hearing is set for the start of October.
Shares in Sefton were trading down 9.1% at 0.0500 pence Friday morning.
By Karolina Kaminska; karolinakaminska@alliancenews.com @KarolinaAllNews
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