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Endeavour Mining said an investigation into former chief executive Sébastien de Montessus had discovered two more “deliberately disguised” payments totalling $15mn to an unnamed third party.
The London-listed gold miner fired de Montessus in January, alleging the French executive had instructed the company to make an irregular $5.9mn payment in relation to an asset disposal. The payment instruction had not been reported to the board.
Announcing the full findings of an investigation by Linklaters and EY on Wednesday, Endeavour said de Montessus and certain others had “caused” the company to make two payments of $15mn to the same third party that received the $5.9mn.
The company added that the investigation could not discover the ultimate beneficiary of the payments, which were made to an offshore entity in Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates.
The investigation did not find any evidence of “bribery, or of any payments to sanctioned persons or to terrorist groups”, the company added.
De Montessus has previously acknowledged that he should have told the board about the $5.9mn payment instruction but has denied wrongdoing, saying the payment was made for security services.
De Montessus did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
The Frenchman was the highest-paid chief executive in the FTSE 100 in 2021, earning $22.7mn, despite the company being a fraction of the size of the London Stock Exchange’s largest groups such as Shell and AstraZeneca.
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