Disgraced former BP boss Bernard Looney will lose £32 million in pay and bonuses

BP concluded last night that former CEO Bernard Looney was guilty of 'serious misconduct' after a scandal over previous relationships with colleagues.

The oil giant's board led by industry veteran Helge Lund decided to strip Looney of £32 million in wages and bonuses.

Looney quit in September after the scandal first broke.

It marks a stunning fall from grace for the global traveler who launched his tenure at BP in 2020 with a plan to reinvent it for the net-zero era – and whose fortunes are now in tatters.

The scandal centers on an investigation launched last year by BP's board into claims about Looney made by an anonymous source.

Looney provided “assurances” at the time about his “past relationships with company colleagues and his future conduct,” BP said.

But in September this year, following further similar allegations, the company launched a new investigation and Looney “informed the company that he had not been fully transparent in these commitments.”

BP said: 'After careful consideration, the board has concluded that, by providing incorrect and incomplete assurances in July 2022, Looney knowingly misled the board.

“The board has determined that this amounts to serious misconduct.”

BP said Looney's lawyers had been informed of the decision on his pay. A spokesperson for the former boss did not immediately comment.

The cost of the scandal to the former oil boss is dwarfed by the sums taken from other toppled British bosses.

Dame Alison Rose lost out on £7.6million after leaving NatWest in the wake of a banking row with Nigel Farage.

And Barclays last year froze around £22 million in bonuses for his former boss Jes Staley, who is embroiled in an investigation into his links with the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

In the US, the amounts involved in such cases are larger.

Former NBC Universal boss Jeff Shell missed out on a £34m share price after being sacked for an inappropriate relationship with a CNBC presenter.

And Steve Easterbrook, the British former CEO of McDonald's, paid back £84 million in severance pay after he was fired in an investigation into his relations with employees.

The £32m taken from Looney includes a range of stock awards worth up to £27m.

He will also miss out on £1.3 million in salary and pension allowance for the remainder of his notice period and an annual bonus for this year worth up to £3.3 million.

In addition, BP is clawing back previously paid bonuses worth more than £900,000.

That reflects the board's decision that Looney may not withhold bonuses “with respect to service after the date of the misleading commitments he made to the board.”

Looney's departure has thrown the company into turmoil at a time when it is reinventing itself with a plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and invest billions in renewable and low-carbon energy.

But earlier this year the country scaled back its plans to reduce its oil and gas production.

Interim chief executive Murray Auchincloss, who stepped in as BP began looking for a permanent new boss, has insisted the push for green remains on track. He said that “one departure of one person does not change the strategy.”

In October, BP reported a 60 percent decline in third-quarter profit due to falling oil prices. Auchincloss dismissed speculation that it could become a takeover target.

Looney grew up on a farm in Ireland and joined BP in 1991 as a drilling engineer.

As he rose through the ranks, he worked across the company's global operations, including Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico, Vietnam and the North Sea.

He divorced his wife of two years, Jacqueline Hurst, shortly before becoming CEO at the oil giant.

She reportedly later claimed that he dumped her via WhatsApp.