BNN shares suspended as CFO resigns, alleges misconduct

Content and services group, BNN Technology announced on Monday that its chief financial officer, Scott Kennedy, had tendered his resignation on 1 September after making a number of serious allegations against the company.

The allegations, directed at group chief executive Darren Mercer, and chief executive of the firm's China operations, Wei Qi, led the board of directors to hold a meeting on Sunday.

While BNN said it lacked "sufficient information" to comment on the accusations, it chose to suspend the employment of both Mercer and Qi, effective immediately.

Given the absence of a suitable senior executive management team to oversee control of BNN's operations, particularly those in China, the firm requested its shares be suspended from trading on AIM as of 0730 BST on Monday.

The suspension was set to remain in place until the appointment of either permanent or interim executive management was made.

BNN said an independent firm of accountants and lawyers would be commissioned to undertake a thorough review of the allegations.

Harry Keiley, nonexecutive chairman of BNN Technology, said "The Independent Committee is aware that this announcement will cause great concern to our shareholders. The decision to suspend two of our senior team was not taken lightly and should not be taken as an assessment of the validity, or otherwise, of these allegations. However, given the serious nature of these allegations and the source from which they have come, the Independent Committee feels it has no choice but to suspend the relevant individuals at this time."

The shares had closed at 42.0p on 1 September.