Telegraph22 May 2021 21:47
Todd Kozel could sense the opportunity as he arrived in Erbil for a visit in 2006. Miles of unexplored territory lay waiting as Kurdistan opened up its oil industry in the post-Saddam era.
The affable American was chief executive of Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP), which would go on to discover and develop one of the region’s richest oilfields.
The opportunities would turn GKP into a favourite of retail investors and Kozel into a very wealthy man. He would earn $66m (£47m) during his final years at the top, helping to fund his sports car habit.
Investor concerns over Kozel’s remuneration and repeated governance controversies dogged GKP. But in 2014 it graduated from the rough-and-tumble of Aim to join the grown-ups on the main market. At the same time Kozel stepped down and GKP’s directors hoped a calmer atmosphere would prevail.
Yet seven years later Kozel, now 54, continues to cast a shadow over the company. This summer he faces a potential jail sentence in New York after pleading guilty to failing to file personal tax returns including on his earnings as GKP chief executive.
Now an investigation by The Sunday Telegraph and OCCRP investigative journalism group has uncovered a secret deal struck by Kozel in Kurdistan that has prompted renewed calls for a corruption investigation. GKP agreed to funnel a 10th of its profits from a crucial oilfield to a company controlled by a senior politician. Investors were not told and the oilfield, Shaikan, is today GKP’s main asset.
Todd Kozel (right) with Inga Kozel and Roberto Curran at the opening of the Robert Curran Gallery in Miami in 2014
Todd Kozel (right) with wife Inga Kozel and Roberto Curran at the opening of the Robert Curran Gallery in Miami in 2014 Credit: Getty
Dabin comes on board
“If you don’t like risk, get into bond trading,” Kozel once said. It was an approach that took him a long way in his career. His high-profile divorce before marrying Lithuanian model Inga Buividaite has laid bare many of his business dealings.
Set up by Kozel with investors including the Emirates’ Al-Qasimi ruling family, GKP joined Aim in 2004 and entered Iraqi Kurdistan in the mid to late 2000s, initially as part of an aborted potential tie-up with the US firm Excalibur.
In November 2007, GKP signed a 25-year deal with the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) to develop the Shaikan block – 109 square miles of risky, under-explored territory to the north of Erbil. Kozel declared himself “delighted” in an announcement to the stock exchange the next day.
The company did not tell investors that on the same day, he also signed a deal to pay 10pc of net profits from Shaikan to the Dabin Group, a development company led by Izzeddin Berwari, a retired member of the Kurdistan regional government and senior member of the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party).
The drilling platform at Akri-Bijeel in Shaikan, Iraq, produces 40,000-44,000 barrels of oil a day
The drilling platform at Akri-Bijeel i
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