BP freezes former CEO's payments

Oil giant BP Plc has frozen payments to its former chief executive officer John Browne and former refining boss John Manzoni pending the outcome of a shareholder lawsuit that claims they mismanaged the company, a spokesman said yesterday.

Lawyers for the shareholders are seeking damages following costly oil spills in Alaska and a fatal refinery explosion in Texas that hit shares in the world's third-largest western oil major by market value.

"We volunteered a temporary freeze with the agreement of both John Browne and John Manzoni," spokesman Roddy Kennedy said.

The freeze covers a payment of over £1 million, reflecting a full year's salary, that Mr Browne was promised in May when he stepped down early after it emerged he had lied in a court case seeking an injunction to stop a newspaper from publishing details of an affair with his gay former lover.

Mr Manzoni stepped down shortly after Mr Browne's departure and will become chief executive of Canada's Talisman Energy later this year. His departure terms were not published but industry executives said they believed he was also due to receive an amount equal to a year's salary.