Steve: <<Give me the real reason he's not with the company and why he was allowed to borrow that much money unsecured -- at the same time he was being fired?>>
Good question. I think I have a logical explanation, but I must admit, it's pretty dull because it deals only with the timeline, and it does not contain a smoking gun.
Irrespective of the actual press release date for each event, the actual loan to the directors appears to have been made and entered into the Company's financial results during 1Q97, which ended on March 31, 1997. But the firing of McLeod occurred on April 25, 1997.
So the timeline suggests that the loan and the firing are probably not linked at all. I doubt they would be allowed to restate the date on the books just to cover their tracks.
FWIW, I actually met McLeod in New Orleans at the Howard Weil Conference in early April, and he was still very much "da' Man", if you know what I mean. McLeod was still the man meeting with the buy-side investors and analysts, not Khan. McLeod was the man who fielded all the tough questions from Rice. McLeod was the man who spoke to everybody candidly at the Arakis breakfast about the inconclusive results of Umm Sagura. He appeared very calm and reassured at the time, with not even the slightest hint of an axe above his head. Lutfur, if he was there at all (and I did not see him), must have been very much in the background, probably just a figurehead gladhanding people in the doorway (or pouring them drinks <g>).
Razor |
