Afren share price plunges as company fires chief exec and chief operating officer for misconduct
Afren was plunged into fresh turmoil last night after the oil and gas explorer revealed it has fired chief executive Osman Shahenshah and chief operating officer Shahid Ullah for gross misconduct.
Afren’s shares have plunged since the controversy over unauthorised payments began at the end of July.
The group said law firm Willkie Farr & Gallagher (WFG) has completed its independent review and found that both Shahenshah and Ullah had breached their obligations.
Shahenshah, Shahid and two associate directors – Iain Wright and Galib Virani – who have also been fired received unauthorised payments from the transactions, the company said in a statement.
John St John of STJ Advisors, an independent financial advisory firm that has been involved in many of this year’s stock market flotations, is a non executive director of Afren. He has been a director of the company since 2006.
Afren’s chairman Egbert Imomoh, said: “The decisive and comprehensive actions we have set out today should leave no-one in any doubt about how seriously Afren takes the issues uncovered in July and our commitment to rebuild the confidence of shareholders, partners, staff and our other stakeholders.”
The company said that it had notified the Financial Conduct Authority over these breaches.