Sibir chief is suspended amid bizarre tale of missing £144m

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Henry Cameron, chief executive of one-time stock-market darling Sibir, a Russian oil producer that became AIM's largest stock, has been asked to step aside, with lawyers Jones Day and accountants Ernst & Young brought in to unpick the bizarre state of affairs at the company.

The investigation and suspension of Cameron, 68, a lawyer and veteran of the Russian energy scene, follows the suspension of trading in Sibir's shares last week and the admission that $210 million (£144 million) of the company's money appears to have gone missing.

The row broke out three months ago when it emerged that Cameron had agreed to a bailout of the private property development interests of Chalva Tchigirinski, Sibir's leading shareholder and the Russian who has been its Moscow middleman.

But the plan had to be withdrawn after a shareholder revolt.

Then, at the turn of the year, it emerged in circulars signed off by Sibir's broker, Strand Partners, that the firm had in fact advanced $115 million to Tchigirinski to refinance his Sovietsky Hotel and Moscow's New Sovietskaya development.

Sibir said it had planned to recoup the cash, and then last week dropped the bombshell that Tchigirinski in fact owed it $325 million, rather than $115 million. The company admitted it would have "to conduct an inquiry as to how this has happened".

Cameron had backed the original plan to bail out Tchigirinski, describing him as Sibir's "key intangible asset".

At the time, Cameron said: "Difficult times call for uncomfortable decisions. Doing business in Russia has never been for the faint-hearted, and sometimes requires difficult calls in the boardroom."