On December 22, 2023, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced fraud charges against Brooge, the Company’s former Chief Executive Officer (“CEO”), Nicolaas Lammert Paardenkooper, and its former Chief Strategy Officer and Interim CEO, Lina Saheb. According to the SEC order, before and after going public through a special purpose acquisition transaction, Brooge misstated between 30 and 80 percent of its revenues from 2018 through early 2021 in SEC filings related to the offer and sale of up to $500 million of securities. Further, the order found that Brooge created false invoices to support inflating revenues from its oil facilities in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates by over $70 million over three years, and that Paardenkooper and Saheb knew, or were reckless in not knowing, of the fraud. The SEC order also found that Brooge provided these false invoices to its auditors to conceal the inflated revenue. In addition, according to the order, Brooge agreed during the SEC’s investigation not to issue the $500 million in securities.

On this news, the Company’s stock price dropped during intraday trading on December 22, 2023.