Abu Dhabi oil company faces lawsuit

TAQA, Abu Dhabi's national oil company, is facing a $460 million (£297m) lawsuit after its former chief executive alleged he was forced out for trying to stop "kickbacks, bribery, accounting fraud and corruption".

Peter Barker-Homek said he was summoned into a meeting in 2009 and presented with a "severance agreement" to step down, according to papers filed at the US District Court of Eastern Michigan.

Barker-Homek said he signed the agreement because he feared arrest and imprisonment, and forfeited "millions of dollars owed to him".

His lawsuit claimed: "Worried for his life and the well-being of his family, Barker-Homek signed the severance agreement, thereafter he was harassed and lived in fear of a 'knock on the door' by the police, received mysterious phone calls and was followed, until finally he and his family escaped to the safety of the United States."

A spokesman for Taqa – which bought North Sea assets from Shell and Exxon-Mobil in 2008 – said: "The company takes any challenge to its reputation extremely seriously and will vigorously defend itself against the spurious allegations made in the filing."