Petrofac executive suspended as Unaoil bribery probe deepens

The Unaoil scandal which has engulfed London’s listed oil-services firms deepened today as Petrofac suspended one of its executives and was accused of not co-operating with investigators.

The FTSE 250 firm said it had suspended chief operating officer Marwan Chedid, who was arrested with chief executive Ayman Asfari and questioned under caution by the Serious Fraud Office as part of its investigation into Unaoil, a Monaco-based firm which allegedly paid bribes to secure contracts for its clients.

Both Asfari and Chedid were released without charge, but the company revealed today it had suspended Chedid, who then resigned from the board.

Petrofac insisted his suspension did “not in any way seek to pre-judge the outcome of the SFO’s investigation”.

Petrofac also revealed that the SFO “does not consider the company to have co-operated with it”.

It comes after it emerged that rival oil-services firms Wood Group and Amec Foster Wheeler — which are merging to form a £5 billion business — had also been dragged into the Unaoil scandal.

Amec said it was co-operating with the probes into Unaoil, and Wood said it was carrying out its own investigation into its past dealings with Unaoil. The Aberdeen-based firm said any violations could have a “material adverse effect” on the combined group.

In an effort to be seen to be co-operating with the SFO, Petrofac said it had created a committee of the board to deal with the fraud investigation and had engaged a senior external specialist to oversee the committee’s actions.

Chairman Rijnhard van Tets said: “These decisions signal the board’s determination to co-operate fully with the SFO.”

However, findings from Petrofac’s own investigation into Unaoil were rejected by the SFO. Petrofac shares tanked 20% today to 489.4p, their lowest since 2009.