Bula pair face directorship restrictions

Two former members of the board of Bula Resources have been restricted from operating as directors.

An order was made earlier this week by Ms Justice Finlay Geoghegan, under section 150 of the Companies Act 1990, against Tom Kelly and Omar Yazigi.

The two men are restricted from operating as company directors for five years. The restriction was sought by the Bula liquidator James Stafford. Neither Mr Kelly nor Mr Yazigi entered an appearance.

A third member of the Bula board at the time of Mr Stafford's appointment in March 2004, Timothy Torrington, was not the subject of an application.

In a report to the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE) some time ago, Mr Stafford sought relief from making an application in relation to Mr Torrington and that relief was granted. Mr Torrington, an English hereditary peer, was appointed chairman of Bula in 2002, after the former taoiseach, Albert Reynolds, did not put himself forward for re-election as executive chairman.

Mr Kelly, who has an address in England, is an oil industry executive who was appointed chief executive of Bula by Mr Reynolds in 2001, having earlier worked as a consultant to Bula.

Mr Yazigi was appointed an executive director of Bula in 2002, after the company's shares has been suspended on the Dublin and London markets. Mr Yazigi, from Syria, had been Bula's regional general manager for north Africa and Malta for a year prior to his appointment and has worked in the oil industry since the late 1970s.

A statement of affairs for Bula supplied by Mr Yazigi to Mr Stafford in December 2004 showed Mr Kelly as being owed €142,827 in fees and expenses and Mr Yazigi €344,800. Mr Reynolds was down as being owed €224,798 in fees and a loan.

In 1998, a report on Bula was published by the then minister for enterprise, trade and employment, Mary Harney. Barrister Lyndon McCann found that Bula chairman and managing director Jim Stanley was the owner of a British Virgin Islands firm that was given Bula shares worth €3.1 million as a result of a deal set up by Mr Stanley. The shares were paid for a stake in a Russian oil field, which turned out to be worthless.

Ms Harney referred the report to the DPP, the Stock Exchange, and other bodies.

Mr Reynolds was appointed executive chairman of Bula in March 1999 but none of his plans to revive the company's fortunes came to anything. One deal negotiated by Mr Reynolds created a lot of controversy.

In June 2001, Bula agreed to pay $1.5 million to the Bahrain-based Al Thamer Establishment. Bula subsequently announced that the payment was a refundable deposit as part of a proposed deal. In the period after June 2002, during negotiations with Bula, Gen Kamal of the Al Thamer Establishment said the $1.5 million payment was not refundable. A settlement of $375,000 was eventually agreed.