The report into Bula Resources by Mr Lyndon MacCann has identified several events which came to the Bula directors' attention and which pointed to the possibility of links between Mr Jim Stanley and Mir Oil. Many of these events took place before the disastrous deal under which Bula paid Mir Oil for a stake in the Russian oilfield was finally agreed. The inspector found that Mr Stanley was the beneficial owner of Mir Oil.

The first warning came in a meeting in March 1995 between Mr Jeremy Niebor, a London solicitor representing Bula, and Mr Pat Mahony, then a director of the company and now managing director, at which Mr Niebor told Mr Mahony there might be problems with the Mir/Bula deal. He warned Mr Mahony that the then chairman and managing director, Mr Jim Stanley, might have a related party disclosure to make in connection with the deal. This related to a conservation which Mr Stanley had previously had with Mr Niebor in relation to the possible involvement of his son, Mr Brendan Stanley, in the deal.

Only a day before this warning, Mr Stanley had outlined the deal to the Bula board for the first time. Despite this warning from the company's own solicitor, the deal was developed further.

The next indication the board of Bula was given that Mr Stanley might have an interest in Mir Space came from the two directors of Russian Corporation, Mrs Tatyana Kirillova and Mr Alexander Marichev. The husband and wife had been brought onto the Bula board after an earlier Russian oil deal.

They sent a letter on June 22nd, 1995, before the share transfer with Mir Space had taken place, to their fellow directors raising questions about who exactly owned Mir Space. This letter was exceptionally detailed and asked a serious of direct questions about who owned Mir Space.

"Who incorporated this company? Who are the current shareholders? Who are the beneficiary shareholders?".

These were just some of the questions raised in their correspondence. But the most important question they asked the Bula board to answer was - "do Bula's directors jointly or separately, directly or indirectly, have interest in this company"?

The next meeting of the board considered this letter on June 26th and those present, including Mr Stanley, said they had no interest in Mir Space.

The secretary of the company, Mr Ivan Walpole, replied to the two Russians on July 13th and "simply stated that Mir Space was a company registered in the British Virgin Islands", says the report.

When the transfer and option agreement was finally agreed, it was executed on behalf of Mir Oil, the owner of Mir Space, by Ms Elena Loven.

Since late 1994, Ms Loven was Mr Stanley's Russian translator and personal assistant. Despite this, in Mr MacCann's report there is no indication that the Bula board found it unusual that Ms Loven should be executing the agreement.

Added to this, in a letter sent to the directors of Bula on August 28th, Mr Marichev told them about an earlier attempt by Mr Stanley and Mr James Morrissey, now a public relations professional, to set up a communications project with a Russian company known as Kometa.

He told the board that Mr Morrissey and Mr Stanley had been in Moscow negotiating with Kometa as Mir Space.

Included in Mr Marichev's letter to the board was a letter of intent concerning the proposed deal with Kometa. This letter of intent named Mr Stanley as president of Mir Space. Mr MacCann says the response of the Bula directors to this letter was "muted".

The report also points out that the board of Bula became aware in late 1996 of a Moscow evening newspaper article, published on October 24th, 1995, naming Mr Morrissey and Mr Stanley as participants in Mir Space. The report adds it is surprising the board of Bula did not carry out a more detailed investigation at this stage. "It is peculiar that no effort was made by Bula to look into the allegations surrounding the newspaper article in more detail. This is particularly so . . . given the fact that Bula had arranged and paid for the trip to Moscow," says the report.

The report also details a £12,000 sterling payment to a company called Mir Consult Management by Ovoca in January 1995, two months before the Salymskoye deal was brought to the attention of the Bula board. Ovoca is a related company and, at that time, shared directors and an office with Bula.

Mir Consult Management was part of the Mir companies and the payment was made in January 1995 to Mr Brendan Stanley, the son of Mr Jim Stanley. The payment was authorised by Mr Stanley and Mr Mahony.

In other words, according to the report, a payment was made to a Mir company, associated with Mr Brendan Stanley by a company closely related to Bula, two months before the deal with Mir Space was suggested by Mr Jim Stanley. The payment of money by Bula to Mir Consult Management, however, is denied in the report by Mr Mahony.

During Mr MacCann's examination of Bula computers and discs, he came across a computer file for Mir Space and Mir Oil headed notepaper, giving addresses in both Jersey and the British Virgin Islands. The report says it is "curious that Mir Oil and Mir Space headed notepaper should be found on a Bula computer".

At one stage Bula's Dublin solicitor, LK Shields & Partners, were told by Mr Jim Stanley that Mir's ultimate shareholder could not be revealed because he "might be tracked down and physically attacked".