The Mystery of Ayman Asfari


The chief executive of Petrofac Ltd was once upon a time a billionaire on the Forbes annual billionaire list. However, in 2018, Ayman Asfari dropped off this list. It decline in wealth could be due to financial and legal woes that his company is facing.



Who is Ayman Asfari?
Ayman Asfari is a son of a diplomat. He was born in Syria, but was raised outside his country. He studied at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, in the US and possesses an MSc in civil and urban engineering from the prestigious University of Pennsylvania. He also has an MBA from Wharton School.

His Career Graph
After completing his studies, Ayman Asfari worked in Oman as a consulting engineer for oil companies, where he used to carry out soil testing. Prior to joining Petrofac Ltd, he was the managing director of a civil and mechanical construction company.

When Asfari joined Petrofac in 1991, it had just one plant in Texas. In 2001, he bought the company and made it public in 2005. Petrofac is listed on the London Stock Exchange. He also serves as Petrofac’s chief executive.

Fall from Grace
In 2017, Ayman Asfari was arrested by the Serious Fraud Office for questioning about Petrofac’s activities related to Unaoil, a Monaco-based company. Unaoil is suspected of money laundering, bribery and corruption. While Asfari denied any wrongdoing, he was still suspended by the Petrofac board until May 2018, when he resumed full duties as the company’s chief executive.

However, that was not all the hassles that Asfari faced in 2017. He was fined by the Italian markets regulator, Consob, a whopping EUR300,000 for insider trading. Here too Ayman Asfari said that he was innocent. He also said that he would fight the fine, a fight that he subsequently lost in March 2019. The courts in the UK had said in 2017 that the regulators had not followed the due process, and hence, Asfari could not defend himself against the charges.

Ayman Asfari also had to face the ignominy of falling out of the Forbes Billionaire list in 2018, even though he bought shares of Petrofac and increased his stake from 18% to 19%. This could be due to the ongoing financial woes that the company is facing and the investigation by the Serious Fraud Office did not help Petrofac in the stock market.

However, there is some hope still for Ayman Asfari, as his name has not been mentioned in the court documents when charges were brought against David Lufkin, the former global head of sales of Petrofac. In fact, Lufkin pleaded guilty to bribery in February 2019. So, one wonders what role Ayman Asfari had to play as the chief executive of Petrofac, a company that has won lucrative contracts in the Middle East and India.

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