Quick read: The Afren scandal and the banks that let it happen

A recent criminal trial in London has revealed how banking negligence enabled a multi-million dollar fraud at the now defunct oil company Afren. Read on for a guide to Olivier Holmey’s feature in the February issue of Euromoney examining the errors made and what the financial sector can learn from them.

1. Avenues to greater wealth

Not content with their Afren wages, Osman Shahenshah and Shahid Ullah, the company’s former chief executive and chief operating officer, conceived of two schemes to achieve greater personal wealth. The two men secretly negotiated with the bosses of Afren’s Nigerian business partners, Oriental Energy Resources and Amni International Petroleum, in the hope that either or both of them would add to their fortune. The Oriental scheme eventually delivered millions of dollars in undeclared revenue to Shahenshah and Ullah.

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