Afren sacks senior team over unauthorised payments

Afren has sacked chief executive officer Osman Shahenshah and chief operating officer Shahid Ullah for gross misconduct following a review into the receipt of unauthorised payments by members of management and senior employees. In a 13 October statement, Afren said it had also sacked directors Iain Wright and Galib Virani for receiving payments in breach of the company’s approved remuneration policy. The review by Willkie Farr & Gallagher (WFG) found that Shahenshah and Ullah had paid themselves $17.1m in extraordinary bonuses out of funds transferred to a British Virgin Islands special purpose vehicle.