RE: The Board and Management20 Dec 2023 00:00
Let’s hope the board and management read this!!
https://www.ft.com/content/df56db66-db8a-11e8-9f04-38d397e6661c
“Former Afren oil executives sentenced to total of 30 years
Two former executives of the failed oil exploration company Afren have been sentenced to a total of 30 years of jail time for fraud and money laundering offences.
Osman Shahenshah and Shahid Ullah, the former chief executive and chief operating officer respectively of Afren, which has since collapsed into administration, were found guilty of one count each of fraud by abuse of position and two related charges each of money laundering last week after a six-week trial in London.
The former executives failed to disclose a secret side arrangement to the board under which the pair were due to receive $45m out of $300m of payments being made to Oriental Energy Resources as part of a project to develop the Ebok oilfield off the coast of Nigeria.
The $45m was routed to them through an offshore shell company registered in the BVI owned by Ullah and Shahenshah’s wife. Some $30m of those funds were paid out to the two former executives and a group of seven Afren employees, branded “the A-Team” before the arrangement was uncovered.
The executives did not deny the existence of the side deal, but said they were acting in the financial interests of the company, helping ensure that Afren’s best employees were not lured to rivals by better pay at a time when the oil price was soaring and the industry booming.
On Monday, Shahenshah, 56, was sentenced to six years jail for one count of fraud, six years concurrent sentence for one count of money laundering and four years concurrent for another count of money laundering.
Ullah, 59, was sentenced to five years jail time for fraud, five years concurrent for one count of money laundering and four years concurrent for another count of money laundering.
A jury at Southwark Crown Court last week acquitted them of a second count of fraud by abuse of position relating to a $100m payment to another partner, called Amni International Petroleum Development Company.
Lisa Osofsky, director of the Serious Fraud Office, which brought the case, said on Monday:
The significant sentences reflect the seriousness of this fraud. Shahenshah and Ullah violated their duties and their employees, the board of directors and shareholders paid the price.
They abused their positions to line their own pockets and it is satisfying that they have been brought to justice”
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