Former Erin Energy shareholder slams Lawal and other board members

摘要

A shareholder of the insolventAmerican junior Erin Energy, RobertLenois filed a motion for relief fromstay of the Erin’s bankruptcy processwith a federal court in Texas. Drawingon documents that have becomepublic since Erin filed for bankruptcyin April 2018, Lenois would like torelaunch a class action that he initiatedon behalf of the shareholdersbefore a court in Delaware in 2017( AEI 805). In this he accuses Erin’schief executive, Nigerian businessmanKase Lukman Lawal, and membersof the board, including JohnHofmeister, former head of Shell’soil branch, Shell Oil Co, and HazelO’Leary, secretary of state for energyunder Bill Clinton, of not having actedin good faith when they validated thepurchase of OML 120 and 121 fromlocal firm Allied Energy in 2013. Allieditself had not yet completed its 2012acquisition of the block from the previousowners, ENI’s subsidiary NigerianAgip Exploration ( AEI 816).The transaction has been the objectof an arbitration opened in 2013. InApril 2018, a Nigerian court had theblocks seized, which directly led toErin’s bankruptcy. Lenois has basedhis argument on a form filled in at thetime by the company’s representativeswhen the Nigerian Navy seizedtheir blocks. He claims this formdemonstrates that at the time theywere negotiating the sale in 2013,the board of directors knew the assetswere the subject of an arbitrationproceeding with the London Courtof International Arbitration (LCIA).For Lenois, the statement in the formthat the LCIA arbitration began “in2016” and not in 2013 as was thecase, shows that the board had actedin bad faith to intentionally concealthis vital piece of information. He alsoaccuses the board of letting Lawalsingle-handedly manage the transactionbetween Erin and Allied, twocompanies that he controlled via hisgroup CAMAC Holdings. Lenois alsoclaims that Erin “vastly overpaid” forthe assets: the company forked outbetween $303 million and $416 millionfor the blocks, valued atjust $217 by the company’s financialadvisor.