Former chairman of Bula fails to meet Government inspector

The former chairman and chief executive of Bula Resources, Mr Jim Stanley, did not meet with the Government appointed inspector, Mr Lyndon McCann, during Mr McCann's week-long visit to Moscow, which ended yesterday. Mr McCann travelled to Moscow as part of his investigation into matters connected with a deal set up by Mr Stanley in 1995. The deal involved Bula making a significant investment in a Siberian oil field and transferring about 6 per cent of its entire shareholding to a British Virgin Islands company, Mir Oil Development.

A London-based solicitor, Mr Stephen Barker, of Barker Gillette, met Mr McCann at the Irish embassy in Moscow at 9.30 a.m. on Thursday and said Mr Stanley was "ready, willing and able" to meet with the inspector, but first required that certain undertakings be made.

"The undertakings requested were ones only the Minister could give," Mr Barker said. "They were not forthcoming. I agree timing could have been a problem."

The undertakings sought were "perfectly legitimate ones and in accordance with the European Convention on Human Rights," he said.

He has experience in the company law under which Mr McCann was appointed. British law is similar to the Irish law, he said. He recently successfully defended a British businessman now living in New York, Mr Roger Levitt, against a request by the British Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), that he be extradited from the United States.

Mr Levitt was arrested in October in relation to the DTI investigation into a British company, the International Boxing Corporation. Mr Barker had the extradition warrant quashed in a London Court on November 10th.

Mr Levitt is now suing the DTI for damages. DTI inspectors were investigating an alleged role Mr Levitt might have had in the company.

Mr Barker was engaged by Mr Stanley on Friday of last week. Mr Barker spent an hour with Mr McCann on Thursday, firstly in private conversation concerning Mr Jim Stanley, and after that sitting in on an interview between the inspector and Mr Stanley's son, Brendan.

"I had to intervene a number of times because I believed the inspector was going beyond his remit. We believe he (Brendan) never should have been asked to attend. Brendan has never been an agent for Bula."

Mr McCann is also seeking an interview with a daughter of Mr Jim Stanley, Nichola, who lives in Seattle, in the USA. She also has never acted for Bula, Mr Barker said.

As well as the requirements sought on Thursday, about which Mr Barker did not wish to elaborate, the London solicitor said he would be also seeking assurances about the "scope of the inquiries" and documentation being sought from Mr Jim Stanley, before any meeting would go ahead.

People who refuse to meet a Government-appointed inspector can be "certified" to the courts, which then rule on whether the refusal constitutes contempt of court.

Mr Barker said that unless and until the requirements being sought were granted, the refusal of Mr McCann to meet the inspector would not be wrongful.

Certain provisions of the Companies Act, if enforced, would contravene the European Convention on Human Rights, Mr Barker said. Contravention of articles of the convention was part of the successful argument used in the Levitt case.

Mr Jim Stanley and Mr Brendan Stanley are currently living in Moscow. A man who answered a telephone at an office they use there said: "I am instructed that Mr Jim Stanley will not be giving any information to the press."

During his week in Moscow Mr McCann met, in the embassy, with Mr Vladimir Tokarev and Mr Nikolai Bogatchev, as well as other Russian businessmen associated with the company KMNGG. KMNGG has a 50 per cent interest in the Siberian oil field, with Mir Oil Development having the other 50 per cent.

"We had to swear on the bible. All the conversations were recorded. It was very formal," Mr Bogatchev said. Each person was interviewed individually. Mr McCann also held meetings with Mr Alexandr Marichev and his wife, Ms Tatyana Kirollova, who are both former directors of Bula. They were appointed to the board after the company bought into another Siberian oil field, and entered into a partnership with the Russian Corporation. That deal also ended in disaster.

Meanwhile, an application from legal representatives acting for Mir Oil to have a "freeze" lifted on the 74 million Bula shares that company owns as a result of the Russian deal, is listed for hearing on Monday.

The company is claiming it has now supplied information to Bula concerning the true beneficial ownership of the British Virgin Islands company.

It is understood Bula will be objecting to the application. Solicitors acting for Mir have said the owner is, and was at the time of the deal, Mr Craig Bond, son of the disgraced Australian tycoon, Mr Alan Bond.

At the time the deal was being agreed in 1995 Mr Stanley told the board of Bula that Mir Oil was owned by Mr Charles Ellis, from South Africa. Mr Ellis, who has met the inspector in South Africa, told The Irish Times this week that he had never heard of Mr Craig Bond.

KMNGG has since become part of a US-Russian holding company, KMOC, which is planning to make a public offering in the US within 18 months. The US businessman involved, Mr John Fitzgibbons, was to have a meeting this week in New York with Mr Bond to discuss the KMNGG involvement with Mir Oil.

However, it is understood the meeting did not go ahead. Mr Bond has not yet produced documentation satisfactory to KMOC, in relation to his ownership of Mir Oil.