Yahoo Finance Petrofac suspends COO in response to SFO investigation
The UK oil services group Petrofac has suspended its chief operating officer and taken other measures in response to a criminal investigation by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO).
Petrofac said Marwan Chedid had been suspended until further notice and had resigned from the board. The chief executive, Ayman Asfari, a major Tory donor, will stay in his post but will not be involved in the investigation. He is standing down from the nominations committee, which is responsible for the appointment and removal of senior company officials. He owns 18% of Petrofac.
The company’s shares slumped more than 20% to 485.2p on the news.
The SFO said on 12 May that it was investigating the company, its employees and agents for suspected bribery, corruption and money laundering. The probe is linked to its investigation of Unaoil, a Monaco-based firm that has been accused of corruptly securing contracts for multinationals. Unaoil has denied any wrongdoing.
Asfari and Chedid were arrested, questioned under caution by the SFO, and released without charge.
Petrofac employed Unaoil for consultancy work in Kazakhstan between 2002 and 2009. Petrofac said it had commissioned an independent investigation last year into media allegations in relation to Unaoil and passed its findings on to the SFO, which then told Petrofac that it did not accept those findings. The SFO also told Petrofac that it did not consider the company to have cooperated with it.
Petrofac has now set up a committee of the board led by its chairman, Rijnhard van Tets, to engage with the SFO and is in the process of appointing a senior external specialist to oversee the group’s management of the investigation. The specialist will also review Petrofac’s compliance processes.
Van Tets said: “These decisions signal the board’s determination to cooperate fully with the SFO and its investigation, whilst ensuring Petrofac continues to deliver for its clients.”
Petrofac stressed that the action taken did “not in any way seek to prejudge the outcome of the SFO’s investigation”. It added that it had provided “large volumes of information in response to very broad requests” made by the SFO.
Asfari and his wife have given the Conservative party more than £700,000 since 2009, including a £40,000 donation last December. The Syrian-born businessman is a member of the leader’s group, an elite set of donors who are invited to dine with the prime minister. Asfari is also a business ambassador and can lead trade missions.
