The Financial Services Authority (FSA) in the UK is investigating a minister for the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG ) after it was revealed that he had made US$20.22 million secretly trading shares in Heritage Oil after he had personally awarded it an exploration contract in Iraqi Kurdistan.
UK newspaper The Times reported that Ashti Hawrami is now under investigation by the FSA, the regulatory body of the London Stock Exchange, to ensure that he didn’t exploit his position in order to profit fro share trading.
Hawrami has claimed that the transactions were properly authorised and that the profits were transferred to the KRG.
“An oil minister in Iraq quite clearly shouldn’t be making millions of pounds of profits secretly buying and selling shares on the London Stock Exchange in one of the oil companies he oversees,” one industry source is quoted by The Times as saying. “He should disclose what he knew about the chances of this firm striking oil and when.”
Hawrami has been responsible for the awarding of the controversial oil contracts in Iraqi Kurdistan. In 2009 he was also at the centre of a huge row with the Norwegian energy company DNO after similar insider accusations were made by the Oslo Stock Exchange.
