The Serious Fraud Office is poring over “expenses” payments made by oil company Afren in the latest blow to the troubled, London-listed explorer currently fighting for survival.
Cash-strapped Afren has been hit by the perfect storm of tumbling oil prices — forcing it into a rescue which has virtually wiped out shareholders — and the sacking of the chief executive and chief operating officer for gross misconduct over “unauthorised payments”.
It also slashed its estimates of reserves at its Barda Rash project in Kurdistan earlier this year.
The explorer said it had notified fraudbusters “regarding the hire of an individual within its operations in 2012 and the payment of certain travel and accommodation expenses connected to Afren’s activities”.
The latest concerns were thrown up by Willkie Farr & Gallagher, the City law firm whose original, independent review into whether certain Afren transactions needed to be disclosed to the market culminated in the firing of chief executive Osman Shahenshah and chief operating officer Shahid Ullah in October.
Two other directors, Iain Wright and Galib Virani, were also dismissed for receiving payments in breach of Afren’s remuneration policy.