Afren bosses sacked over Nigerian ‘bribes’ hit back

The disgraced ex-bosses of Afren have hit back at the collapsed oil firm with a lawsuit of their own, claiming reputational damage after they were sacked for allegedly accepting “bribes”.

Former chief executive Osman Shahenshah and ex-chief operating officer Shahid Ullah are suing the former stock market darling for £10 million and £12 million respectively, according to court documents seen by the Standard.

Their counterclaims are in response to a lawsuit launched against them and the company’s Nigerian partner by Afren’s administrators AlixPartners for at least $500 million (£385 million).

Shahenshah and Ullah, part of a team who referred to themselves as “the A-Team”, deny payments from Oriental Energy Resources, its Nigerian partner on the Ebok oilfield, to them and other staff were “bribes” and reject AlixPartners’ claim that their actions caused the company to go bust.

They say the offshore vehicle was set up so that Oriental could pay in a share of the profits from Ebok as a way of rewarding key Afren staff, whom they feared might leave for better-paying US rivals.

Shahenshah and Ullah were fired in 2014 after an independent review claimed they and other employees had received millions of pounds in unauthorised payments from Oriental in exchange for $400 million in funding.

The events leading up to the company’s collapse in 2015, saddled with £1.4 billion debt, are being investigated by the SFO.

Shahenshah is now suing Afren for three years’ pay and claims reputational damage means he has been unable to find work elsewhere.

He says he was wrongfully dismissed, adding his career prospects have been “permanently damaged” by “derogatory, incorrect and unjustified” remarks made by former Afren executives.

Shahenshah alleges that former chief executive Toby Hayward described them to staff as “criminals”, while the former head of investor relations Simon Hawkins allegedly referred to them as “fraudsters” in an email which appeared on an online investor forum.