Endeavour Announces Completion of Investigation and Key Findings - Seite 3

The Investigation identified evidence that Mr de Montessus, acting with certain others who are not (and were not at any time) employees of the Group:

• diverted a consideration payment with a value of US$5.9 million, relating to the disposal of the Agbaou mine, to a third-party company in March 2021, and concealed this payment by subsequently making false representations to management, the Board and the Group’s auditors over a period of more than two years that the receivable was still outstanding; and
• had previously, in August and November 2020, caused Endeavour to make two payments totalling US$15.0 million to the same third-party company as the US$5.9 million payment, by deliberately disguising the US$15.0 million as advance payments to a contractor through repeated false representations to management, causing an aggregate loss of that amount to Endeavour and/or the contractor.

Despite extensive efforts, the Investigation was not able to establish the ultimate beneficiaries of the payments to this third-party entity. This entity was incorporated as an offshore entity in Ras al Khaimah in the UAE and was liquidated on the day after the payment of the US$5.9 million in March 2021. Through searches by professional investigation agents, thorough enquiries were made in the UAE, but the investigation work was unable to ascertain the true beneficial ownership of this entity, which was concealed from the Company by Mr de Montessus and those with whom he acted.

Although Mr de Montessus attended two interviews during the Investigation, he continued to attempt to conceal his motives and actions relating to the events being investigated by providing untrue and misleading explanations for his conduct.

Since 4 January 2024, Mr de Montessus has publicly stated that the US$5.9 million payment which he deliberately diverted in March 2021 was used to pay for security equipment to protect the Group’s partners and employees in a conflict zone. However, based on the information given by Mr de Montessus in interviews and the other evidence available to the Investigation (including the evidence that Mr de Montessus had caused US$15.0 million to be paid by Endeavour to the same third-party company in different circumstances in 2020), his explanation was found to be implausible and untrue.