November 7, 2018
On October 29, the UK’s Serious Fraud Office announced the sentencing of former Afren executives.
On October 29, the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) issued a press release announcing that Osman Shahenshah and Shahid Ullah “received a total of 30 years for fraud and money laundering offences they had committed whilst they were CEO and Chief Operating Officer of Afren Plc” and that “Shahenshah and Ullah laundered more than $45m from a $300m deal they recommended to Afren, using their illicit proceeds to purchase luxury properties in the Caribbean.”
The SFO announced that its criminal investigation into the actions of the former CEO and COO of the collapsed oil and gas exploration company began in June 2015 following a self-report by the company’s administrators - which arose from an investigation conducted by Willkie’s UK Compliance, Investigations and Enforcement team for Afren - with the defendants charged with four offences in September last year.
