He Was Convinced He’d Found The Goose That Laid The Golden Egg

Can I ask you to cast your mind Back to 2003 when President George W Bush declared war with Iraq claiming that they had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) ready to unleash on the west.

British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, supported this narrative, and even though one million people joined the march in London against the war, the pair of them went ahead with their planned invasion.

Even now, I still feel upset over that decision.

My boyfriend at the time thought he’d found the ‘Goose that Laid the Golden Egg’. He was so full of confidence as he described to me his discovery of an independent oil and gas exploration and production company that operates in the Kurdistan region of Iraq. Gulf Keystone Petroleum (GKP) was the name of the company, who operated in the Shaikan oil field. The founder and CEO was a man called ‘Todd Kozel’. At one time he was the highest paid CEO on the London Stock Exchange, even though no oil had been produced from the oil wells.

The company GKP, was founded by UAE, Kuwaiti and US private equity firms registered in Bermuda since 2001, with branch offices in Erbil, Kurdistan and London, UK. The company owned production sharing contracts for one exploration block in Iraqi Kurdistan through its subsidiary, Gulf Keystone Petroleum International.

I couldn’t argue that it wasn’t a fantastic opportunity, however, the business climate in the Middle East wasn’t for the faint hearted. GKP were building a pipeline through Turkey to pipe the oil to the Black Sea Ports.

It would seem that most of the funds invested went into providing the infrastructure to bring the oil onto the World Market.

My friend was convinced he would make a fortune, be driving around a Porsche 911 and living in a £4,000,000 home. He smirked at me as he boasted about how powerful and rich he would be.

… Well, maybe … however, many years ago, I was visiting the Dealing Room at the Bank of Boston on the day that President Sadat of Egypt was assassinated by his own military. When it happened, the dealing room went crazy with phones ringing and people dashing around.

It was so serious that the CEO came into the Dealing Room that morning — it’s something I will never forget!

The Middle East is not for the cautious or those with little resources. One night I had a dream when I was told “he will lose everything”.

He invested his entire pension fund into the company. He even managed to convince his father to put the family home into ‘equity release’ and invest the funds into GKP. Many of his friends followed his advice and sunk enormous sums into the venture.

I refused, standing my ground saying that; “An estimated Million Iraqi citizens had died in the conflict: They’d lost their homes, schools, hospitals, roads and infrastructure, I wasn’t prepared to make money out of the misery of others”.

Personally, no matter how much money was to be made, I couldn’t live with the knowledge that I funded a company who were making money through other people’s misfortunes. Besides which, the company hadn’t shown itself to be profitable yet — needless to say, our relationship ended.

He soon found a new girlfriend, who was smitten with his ‘prospects’. She became pregnant very soon after meeting him, well, she wasn’t going to let her ‘catch’ escape too soon. He probably promised her a life free of financial struggles and luxury. She sold her terraced house and probably put the funds into GKP Shares.

I sometimes can't believe the co-incidences in my life. One day when I was driving back home from work in a nearby town, the motorway had become a 'car-park' following a serious accident. I decided to drive through the villages.

When I was driving down a hill in one of the villages, the road narrowed to single lane traffic because of the parked cars outside the residents' homes. I pulled into the first available space to let a car pass driving up the hill - Right behind my ex's car (I recognised the number plate instantly).

Well, Well, Well - it wasn't the mansion I'd expected, but a shabby terraced house, in one of the worst places in the area!

So what happened next?

I can’t seem to find the exact date ISIS invaded and took control of the oil fields. It soon became obvious that oil tankers were turning up at the oil field, filling their tanks and stealing the oil, probably showing false papers.

When I tell people this story, they seem to think that controls and systems work the same way as in the West, that the authorities would recognise fake documents, but Noooo — it’s Bandit Country!

Much of the system had been destroyed in Iraq. He was trusting people from another country, many of whom have seen their families killed, to be honest and sell their oil to the West, Really? Really?

He said that if the Iraqi’s tried to take the oil, the Americans and British will invade again and take control, WHY? It was like talking to a brick wall, so I gave up.

He did lose everything. He told me he’d borrowed money on his credit card to invest because it was a ‘sure fire thing’ and he would be a multi-millionaire by the end of the year.

The share price has now increased, however there have been 2 splits of the shares, which would have diluted the value.

Sometimes, I see a man running past my house, his head is turned the other way — but I know who he is, and I feel very sad.

Thank you for reading to … The End.