Pair jailed over secret payments via Bermuda

Jonathan Kent, Business Editor

Published Oct 30, 2018 at 8:00 am (Updated Oct 29, 2018 at 11:58 pm)

Jailed: Osman Shahenshah, the former CEO of Afren (Photograph by Simon Dawson/Bloomberg)

Two former executives of collapsed oil company Afren were sentenced to a combined total of 30 years in prison yesterday for fraud and money-laundering offences after they received millions of dollars in secret payments through a Bermudian-based entity they controlled.

Osman Shahenshah, Afren’s former chief executive, and Shahid Ullah, the company’s former chief operating officer, were each found guilty of fraud by abuse of position and two related charges of money laundering by a jury in London.

The offences related to a $300 million payment by Afren to partner company Oriental Energy Resources for developing oilfields off the coast of Nigeria. The two executives did not disclose to their board a side deal, which directed $45 million of the money to them.

The $45 million was routed to an offshore shell company registered in the British Virgin Islands and owned by the respective wives of Ullah and Shahenshah.

About $17 million in payments to the two executives were made through a Bermudian-based entity of the same name as the BVI company. The pair used more to buy luxury properties in the BVI and Mustique, Britain’s Serious Fraud Office said. Millions more were paid out to a group of seven other Afren employees, known as the “A-Team”.

Afren has since gone into administration. The SFO began investigating in June 2015 and the charges were brought against the two men in September last year.

Shahenshah and Ullah were convicted last week after a six-week trial at Southwark Crown Court. At yesterday’s sentencing, Judge Gledhill QC said: “You believed that you were above the law, you believed that you were so clever that no one would ever discover your offending.”

Shahenshah, 56, was sentenced to six years jail for one count of fraud, six years concurrent sentence for one count of money laundering and four years concurrent for another count of money laundering.

Ullah, 59, was sentenced to five years jail time for fraud, five years concurrent for one count of money laundering and four years concurrent for another count of money laundering.

The sentences mean that each will spend up to six years in prison. Lisa Osofsky, director of the SFO, said: “The significant sentences reflect the seriousness of this fraud. Shahenshah and Ullah violated their duties and their employees, the board of directors and shareholders paid the price.

“They abused their positions to line their own pockets and it is satisfying that they have been brought to justice.

“I would like to thank our international partners in the US Department of Justice, who greatly assisted with our investigation.”

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