The High Court has frozen the sale of 74 million shares in Bula Resources, the oil and gas exploration company, pending an investigation into who the beneficial owner is.
Counsel for the company told the court there had been suggestions that Bula's former managing director, Mr Jim Stanley, may have had an interest in a company to which Bula gave the shares, to pay for a stake in a Siberian oilfield.
The court move follows Government and Irish Stock Exchange concerns about developments in the company, which has thousands of Irish shareholders.
Two years ago Bula gave 101.5 million of its shares to buy a stake in a Siberian oilfield, since discovered to have much less oil than expected, from a company called Mir Oil. Some 28 million of the shares which Bula gave in return for the stake in the oilfield have since been sold. The order relates to the remaining shares.
Mr Michael Collins, counsel for Bula, said his clients had been unable to establish the beneficial ownership of the 74 million shares, valued at around £1.1 million.
Mr Collins said there had been some suggestion at the time that Mr Jim Stanley, who resigned as Bula managing director last April, had an interest in Mir Space and Mir Oil, the two companies with which Bula did the oilfield deal. He may have been the owner of another company which owned Mir Oil, he said.