Gulf Keystone Petroleum Share Discussion Threads

[kurdman63] 23/5/2021 11:00

Another article lol.

hxxps://www.occrp.org/en/investigations/the-rise-and-fall-of-a-us-oilman-in-iraq

A secret kickback deal with an Iraqi Kurdistan politician made Todd Kozel rich. But an affair and his bitter divorce led him to disgrace.

Key Findings
Todd Kozel, founder of London-listed oil company Gulf Keystone, struck a deal to kick back huge revenues to an Iraqi Kurdistan politician’s company in 2007.
The Kurdistan deal was later deemed illegal and was voided just weeks before the U.K.’s Bribery Act, which brought tougher rules against international corruption, was passed in April 2010. Still, Gulf Keystone was allowed to keep exploiting the field.
U.S. and U.K. authorities failed to act after a whistleblower informed them of the deal and said it amounted to “written corruption.”
Not long after the deal was voided, Gulf Keystone funnelled $12 million to an offshore company that was secretly connected to both Kozel and the Kurdistan Regional Government.
Kozel used another offshore trust to secretly buy millions of shares in Gulf Keystone the same day the company made its first oil find in Iraq, and three days before it was publicly announced.

[nestoframpers] 23/5/2021 11:00

Good luck all I hope we at least all get our money back.

---------------------------------

I am not bothered by this , it reads like a psycho play , lets see if any are taken in and sell up on Monday , it's what they want.

[shortsqueezer] 23/5/2021 10:58

I'm expecting fun and games with the share price this week. Locked and loaded ready for a tree shake.

[kurdman63] 23/5/2021 10:57

Todd Kozel could sense the opportunity as he arrived in Erbil for a visit in 2006. Miles of unexplored territory lay waiting as Kurdistan opened up its oil industry in the post-Saddam era.

The affable American was chief executive of Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP), which would go on to discover and develop one of the region’s richest oilfields.

The opportunities would turn GKP into a favourite of retail investors and Kozel into a very wealthy man. He would earn $66m (£47m) during his final years at the top, helping to fund his sports car habit.

Investor concerns over Kozel’s remuneration and repeated governance controversies dogged GKP. But in 2014 it graduated from the rough-and-tumble of Aim to join the grown-ups on the main market. At the same time Kozel stepped down and GKP’s directors hoped a calmer atmosphere would prevail.

Yet seven years later Kozel, now 54, continues to cast a shadow over the company. This summer he faces a potential jail sentence in New York after pleading guilty to failing to file personal tax returns including on his earnings as GKP chief executive.

Now an investigation by The Sunday Telegraph and OCCRP investigative journalism group has uncovered a secret deal struck by Kozel in Kurdistan that has prompted renewed calls for a corruption investigation. GKP agreed to funnel a 10th of its profits from a crucial oilfield to a company controlled by a senior politician. Investors were not told and the oilfield, Shaikan, is today GKP’s main asset.
Todd Kozel (right) with Inga Kozel and Roberto Curran at the opening of the Robert Curran Gallery in Miami in 2014
Todd Kozel (right) with wife Inga Kozel and Roberto Curran at the opening of the Robert Curran Gallery in Miami in 2014 Credit: Getty
Dabin comes on board

“If you don’t like risk, get into bond trading,” Kozel once said. It was an approach that took him a long way in his career. His high-profile divorce before marrying Lithuanian model Inga Buividaite has laid bare many of his business dealings.

Set up by Kozel with investors including the Emirates’ Al-Qasimi ruling family, GKP joined Aim in 2004 and entered Iraqi Kurdistan in the mid to late 2000s, initially as part of an aborted potential tie-up with the US firm Excalibur.

In November 2007, GKP signed a 25-year deal with the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) to develop the Shaikan block – 109 square miles of risky, under-explored territory to the north of Erbil. Kozel declared himself “delighted” in an announcement to the stock exchange the next day.

The company did not tell investors that on the same day, he also signed a deal to pay 10pc of net profits from Shaikan to the Dabin Group, a development company led by Izzeddin Berwari, a retired member of the Kurdistan regional government and senior member of the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party).
The drilling platform at Akri-Bijeel in Shaikan, Iraq, produces 40,000-44,000 barrels of oil a day
The drilling platform at Akri-Bijeel in Shaikan, Iraq, produces 40,000-44,000 barrels of oil a day Credit: Sebastian Meyer/Corbis via Getty Images

The representation agreement (RA), seen by The Telegraph and OCCRP, was signed by Kozel on behalf of GKP International and Berwari as executive chairman of Dabin.

It covered payment for services including “general consulting and government relations services related to securing and managing the PSC [production sharing contract with the Kurdistan regional government],” as well as arranging meetings and introductions to political and financial organisations.

Nor were shareholders told when, less than three years later in March 2010, GKP wrote to Dabin to cancel the agreement after agreeing with the Kurdistan regional government that it might be illegal, according to court testimony. This was after oil was discovered at Shaikan in 2009 but before the oilfield started producing and therefore generating any revenue. New oil laws passed in August 2007 said public officials should not benefit from a production sharing contract.

According to testimony given in a dispute between GKP and Excalibur, Kozel’s company told the Kurdistan regional government “we have concluded that the above agreement may not be in compliance with Kurdistan law, in particular the petroleum legislation and the penal code which applies to the Kurdistan region of Iraq”. GKP declined to comment on what section of the penal code was referred to.

According to the judgment in that case, the Kurdistan regional government responded to the effect that “the KROGL [Kurdistan Region Oil and Gas Law] prohibited participation of any individual or organisation linked to government officials, political parties or influential individuals. That applied to Dabin in the light of Berwari’s links to the KDP.”

Dr Ashti Hawrami, the oil minister in Kurdistan is said to have indicated to Kozel as early as November 2007 that the Dabin agreement could not proceed and would be declared legally invalid.

An individual working in Iraq in 2015 contacted the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and, later, Wall Street regulators about the proposed agreement with Dabin Group, alleging that the agreement may amount to corruption and urging them to investigate.

The SFO met with the whistle-blower in London in 2015, but have not publicly pursued the matter. Now there are calls for them to look again.
Accord ‘highly concerning’

A spokesman for Kozel said the Dabin agreement “never came to be”. He added: “It was presented to the Kurdistan regional government; they objected and it was never implemented … Once the Kurdistan regional government passed its law, our agreement with Dabin was voided by both parties.”

The spokesman added: “Dabin had nothing to do with GKP receiving the contract.”

Ed Davey, investigator at anti-corruption group Global Witness, says: “The existence of a written agreement promising to pay a senior political official as part of an oilfield deal is highly concerning”.

“This arrangement should be fully investigated irrespective of whether or not any money actually changed hands. It beggars belief that the Serious Fraud Office would not fully investigate a UK-listed company in such circumstances.”

Neither the Kurdistan regional government nor Hawrami, were parties to or witnesses in the Excalibur litigation but the judge noted that Hawrami was a man whom it was agreed on all sides “to have detailed technical knowledge, to be a man of integrity and someone who would appreciate what was in the best interests of the Kurdistan regional government in considering bids and awarding contracts”.

Years after moving on from GKP, Kozel was arrested at JFK airport a week before Christmas 2018 and accused of hiding millions of dollars worth of assets in the Gokana Trust, which owned up to 6.5pc of GKP at various times, away from his ex-wife.

Charges of fraud and money-laundering, which he denied, have now been dropped and Kozel has instead pleaded guilty to charges of late filing of tax returns. His sentencing, likely to take place in August, has been delayed as he underwent treatment for throat cancer.

GKP, meanwhile, is under new management who are keen to distance themselves from the Kozel era. But the giant Shaikan oilfield that he secured, which has been producing since July 2013, is their only asset, producing 40,000-44,000 barrels a day.

A spokesman for GKP said that questions from The Telegraph and OCCRP relate to events that “predates the appointment of any of the current board or management team”.

He added: “The company is committed to the highest standards of corporate governance including ensuring we undertake appropriate due diligence and third party professional advice and has an appropriate share dealing code, disclosure and compliance procedures.”

A spokesman for Kozel said: “These claims from a decade ago have been investigated, litigated and adjudicated, with no findings of corruption, fraud or a failure to disclose.”

Berwari did not respond to a request for comment.

Hawrami made no comment.

[nestoframpers] 23/5/2021 10:54

Have you held through all this nonsense for 11 years General George ? dont be embarrassed ;o) many on here have done the same.

[kurdman63] 23/5/2021 10:52

Todd Kozel could sense the opportunity as he arrived in Erbil for a visit in 2006. Miles of unexplored territory lay waiting as Kurdistan opened up its oil industry in the post-Saddam era.

The affable American was chief executive of Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP), which would go on to discover and develop one of the region’s richest oilfields.

The opportunities would turn GKP into a favourite of retail investors and Kozel into a very wealthy man. He would earn $66m (£47m) during his final years at the top, helping to fund his sports car habit.

Investor concerns over Kozel’s remuneration and repeated governance controversies dogged GKP. But in 2014 it graduated from the rough-and-tumble of Aim to join the grown-ups on the main market. At the same time Kozel stepped down and GKP’s directors hoped a calmer atmosphere would prevail.

Yet seven years later Kozel, now 54, continues to cast a shadow over the company. This summer he faces a potential jail sentence in New York after pleading guilty to failing to file personal tax returns including on his earnings as GKP chief executive.

Now an investigation by The Sunday Telegraph and OCCRP investigative journalism group has uncovered a secret deal struck by Kozel in Kurdistan that has prompted renewed calls for a corruption investigation. GKP agreed to funnel a 10th of its profits from a crucial oilfield to a company controlled by a senior politician. Investors were not told and the oilfield, Shaikan, is today GKP’s main asset.
Todd Kozel (right) with Inga Kozel and Roberto Curran at the opening of the Robert Curran Gallery in Miami in 2014
Todd Kozel (right) with wife Inga Kozel and Roberto Curran at the opening of the Robert Curran Gallery in Miami in 2014 Credit: Getty
Dabin comes on board

“If you don’t like risk, get into bond trading,” Kozel once said. It was an approach that took him a long way in his career. His high-profile divorce before marrying Lithuanian model Inga Buividaite has laid bare many of his business dealings.

Set up by Kozel with investors including the Emirates’ Al-Qasimi ruling family, GKP joined Aim in 2004 and entered Iraqi Kurdistan in the mid to late 2000s, initially as part of an aborted potential tie-up with the US firm Excalibur.

In November 2007, GKP signed a 25-year deal with the Kurdistan regional government (KRG) to develop the Shaikan block – 109 square miles of risky, under-explored territory to the north of Erbil. Kozel declared himself “delighted” in an announcement to the stock exchange the next day.

The company did not tell investors that on the same day, he also signed a deal to pay 10pc of net profits from Shaikan to the Dabin Group, a development company led by Izzeddin Berwari, a retired member of the Kurdistan regional government and senior member of the KDP (Kurdistan Democratic Party).
The drilling platform at Akri-Bijeel in Shaikan, Iraq, produces 40,000-44,000 barrels of oil a day
The drilling platform at Akri-Bijeel in Shaikan, Iraq, produces 40,000-44,000 barrels of oil a day Credit: Sebastian Meyer/Corbis via Getty Images

The representation agreement (RA), seen by The Telegraph and OCCRP, was signed by Kozel on behalf of GKP International and Berwari as executive chairman of Dabin.

It covered payment for services including “general consulting and government relations services related to securing and managing the PSC [production sharing contract with the Kurdistan regional government],” as well as arranging meetings and introductions to political and financial organisations.

Nor were shareholders told when, less than three years later in March 2010, GKP wrote to Dabin to cancel the agreement after agreeing with the Kurdistan regional government that it might be illegal, according to court testimony. This was after oil was discovered at Shaikan in 2009 but before the oilfield started producing and therefore generating any revenue. New oil laws passed in August 2007 said public officials should not benefit from a production sharing contract.

According to testimony given in a dispute between GKP and Excalibur, Kozel’s company told the Kurdistan regional government “we have concluded that the above agreement may not be in compliance with Kurdistan law, in particular the petroleum legislation and the penal code which applies to the Kurdistan region of Iraq”. GKP declined to comment on what section of the penal code was referred to.

According to the judgment in that case, the Kurdistan regional government responded to the effect that “the KROGL [Kurdistan Region Oil and Gas Law] prohibited participation of any individual or organisation linked to government officials, political parties or influential individuals. That applied to Dabin in the light of Berwari’s links to the KDP.”

Dr Ashti Hawrami, the oil minister in Kurdistan is said to have indicated to Kozel as early as November 2007 that the Dabin agreement could not proceed and would be declared legally invalid.

An individual working in Iraq in 2015 contacted the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) and, later, Wall Street regulators about the proposed agreement with Dabin Group, alleging that the agreement may amount to corruption and urging them to investigate.

The SFO met with the whistle-blower in London in 2015, but have not publicly pursued the matter. Now there are calls for them to look again.
Accord ‘highly concerning’

A spokesman for Kozel said the Dabin agreement “never came to be”. He added: “It was presented to the Kurdistan regional government; they objected and it was never implemented … Once the Kurdistan regional government passed its law, our agreement with Dabin was voided by both parties.”

The spokesman added: “Dabin had nothing to do with GKP receiving the contract.”

Ed Davey, investigator at anti-corruption group Global Witness, says: “The existence of a written agreement promising to pay a senior political official as part of an oilfield deal is highly concerning”.

“This arrangement should be fully investigated irrespective of whether or not any money actually changed hands. It beggars belief that the Serious Fraud Office would not fully investigate a UK-listed company in such circumstances.”

Neither the Kurdistan regional government nor Hawrami, were parties to or witnesses in the Excalibur litigation but the judge noted that Hawrami was a man whom it was agreed on all sides “to have detailed technical knowledge, to be a man of integrity and someone who would appreciate what was in the best interests of the Kurdistan regional government in considering bids and awarding contracts”.

Years after moving on from GKP, Kozel was arrested at JFK airport a week before Christmas 2018 and accused of hiding millions of dollars worth of assets in the Gokana Trust, which owned up to 6.5pc of GKP at various times, away from his ex-wife.

Charges of fraud and money-laundering, which he denied, have now been dropped and Kozel has instead pleaded guilty to charges of late filing of tax returns. His sentencing, likely to take place in August, has been delayed as he underwent treatment for throat cancer.

GKP, meanwhile, is under new management who are keen to distance themselves from the Kozel era. But the giant Shaikan oilfield that he secured, which has been producing since July 2013, is their only asset, producing 40,000-44,000 barrels a day.

A spokesman for GKP said that questions from The Telegraph and OCCRP relate to events that “predates the appointment of any of the current board or management team”.

He added: “The company is committed to the highest standards of corporate governance including ensuring we undertake appropriate due diligence and third party professional advice and has an appropriate share dealing code, disclosure and compliance procedures.”

A spokesman for Kozel said: “These claims from a decade ago have been investigated, litigated and adjudicated, with no findings of corruption, fraud or a failure to disclose.”

Berwari did not respond to a request for comment.

Hawrami made no comment.

[kurdman63] 23/5/2021 10:48

I can also explain to you the photo of me sat on the terrace at parliament was that very meeting and the paper work on the table was about Kozel.

I haven't stopped in regards to Kozel and the damage done to shareholders and I am partly responsible for his position today.

Do you remember me asking before the restructuring on the LSE for the appetite among shareholders to take legal action to stop the restructuring with the evidence that I had ???

The long and strong crew have done more damage by supporting this crook and allowing him to pick your pockets.

[general george] 23/5/2021 10:43

You met with senior political figures, inbetween deramping and trolling Baron. Hahahaha. Anyone just has to read your posting history to realise you are clueless.

As for GKP/GENL/DNO all carry political risk, so alot already discounted imho. These are not new claims, dating back 10 years and one never actioned.

To be honest this paints the KRG in a better light, if thats all that could be dug up - Ruling the proposed agreement was illegal and cancelled.

As for Kozel, he probay deserves prision - no one can forget the last minute mates raise before the strike.

[kurdman63] 23/5/2021 10:17

Good Morning 😂

We did tell you that a bomb was about to drop lol.

This article tells a few on here how much they have been duped and had as mugs !

SHAG knew about this going on at the time and I met with senior political figures in parliament in attempt to get a judicial review and investigation before it damaged the company anymore than it already had.

[beernut] 23/5/2021 09:39

We’ll have the Wempens knocking on the door again next.

[beernut] 23/5/2021 09:38

Steephill and Fairenough.
Exactly my thoughts as yours.
They’ve had 10/11/12 years to release those news snippets slating Todd.
All looks to be coming to a head.
Good luck all I hope we at least all get our money back.