re: Official Erin Energy (ERN) thread

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Kase Lawal's personal history is concerning. According to a U.N. Security Council report, in February 2011 Mr. Lawal, along with former NBA basketball star Dikembe Mutombo, attempted to smuggle gold out of Congo. The gold was to be purchased from the Congolese warlord, and "most wanted" human rights violator, General Bosco Ntaganda. The plan allegedly backfired, when instead of selling Lawal and Mutumbo the gold, Ntaganda and his men turned the tables and robbed Lawal's henchmen and held the crew of a Gulfstream jet (leased by a CEHL subsidiary) against their will. The U.N. report recounts an allegation that Lawal later paid more than $30 Million, including a portion for "bribes," to get out of the mess and that the deal was financed using funds from the Camac Group. (The U.N Security Council report can be read online here). A flight attendant, Kelly Shannon, brought suit against Camac International after she was "interrogated and held for six weeks" in Congo as a result of the gold fiasco. The owner of the jet, David Disiere, was awarded $32 Million after the Gulfstream V jet was "lost" in Congo.

Other fun Kase Lawal adventures include:

1) Alleged forgery: According to a story published by The McClatchy DC news service, "a six-count criminal complaint filed in Nigeria eight years ago [2000] charges Kase Lawal with joining in a plot to forge papers in the name of a local company, win offshore-drilling approvals and illegally pump and sell more than 10 million barrels of crude oil."

Some reporters alleged that Lawal got "off" for this incident because he "bribed both the then Inspector General of Police and the Attorney General of the Federation to intervene by 'killing' the case."

2) Alleged oil piracy: A 2008 McClatchy DC news service article states that "from 2003 to 2005, The Mail & Guardian in Johannesburg, South Africa, reported in several stories that Lawal had engineered a deal between the South African government and Nigeria that ultimately promised to bring South Africa 120,000 barrels of oil a day at wholesale prices. Neither of two companies that CAMAC set up ever provided any oil to South Africa, however. Instead, the oil went to one of them in the Cayman Islands that was 75% owned by CAMAC, the newspaper said. Its minority owners remain secret. The other firm, which apparently got no oil, was the South Africa Oil Co., established in Pretoria. CAMAC owned 49% of its shares. The remaining shareholders were a 'who's who' of relatives of leaders of the country's ruling African National Congress, the newspaper said."

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A lot of companies that "pump oil" go out of business. The question is, are they economically pumping oil? Nigeria is famous for, among other theft oriented practices, being a very difficult place to make money (even for XOM) due to the corruption. Here you have a guy that is clearly on the dark side of shady selling a bill of goods...like I said earlier, good luck to all, but I wouldn't ride this baby too long.

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