Reuters reported that Oman's Renaissance Services uncovered 'serious issues at its Topaz unit including financial misconduct and fraud, as the diversified firm posted a 77% plunge in its H1 net profit.

Mr Samir Fancy chairman Renaissance said that Topaz, which pulled USD 500 million IPO earlier in the year did not disclose information to the board of directors and breached the company's code of business conduct

The statement said that the company one of the biggest oil services companies in the Middle East discovered evidence of fraud and ethical misconduct at one of the Topaz subsidiaries abroad, centred around the use of USD 2.9 million of cash in the business.

Renaissance said it was moving to quickly address the issues, the one off impact of which could climb to as much as $30 million. The company will cut more than 100 jobs in Topaz's engineering business and expects to realize savings from the move in 2012.

All managers of the unnamed overseas subsidiary were dismissed and Topaz' CEO Mr Fazel Fazelbhoy stepped down on May 30th 2011. Fazelbhoy told Reuters in July that he had resigned as chief executive of Topaz.

The statement said that resignations have also been accepted for the company's finance director and the chief operating officer at Topaz Engineering.

(Sourced from Reuters)