Birmingham City holding company fires CEO Peter Pannu

Businessman Peter Pannu has been fired as the chief executive officer and managing director of the trouble-hit Hong Kong listed company that controls English soccer club Birmingham City.

Pannu is the right-hand man of the company's former boss, convicted money launderer Carson Yeung Ka-sing, who is serving a six-year sentence in Stanley Prison for laundering dirty cash through a Macau casino and a securities company, among others.

The decision to fire him for "exceeding his authority" was made at a meeting of Birmingham International Holdings directors in Hong Kong this month, in a split decision that laid bare bitter boardroom divisions.

Pannu has hit back, telling the Post he took the proper corporate action and did not over-step his authority.

The company made public his removal last Monday, 24 hours before his boss Yeung - who still owns a 28.5 per cent stake in the Hong Kong-listed company - was refused bail pending an appeal on his conviction this year for laundering HK$721 million.

Pannu, a former Hong Kong police officer who went on to become a barrister, went into business with Yeung, who bought what was then English Premier League club Birmingham City.

Pannu had been under fire for a number of weeks after a series of online posts - purportedly from him - suggested the soccer club could soon run out of money and raised questions about whether Yeung still wielded influence at the company.