The chief executive and chief financial officer of one of Australia’s largest oil and gas companies, Oil Search, bullied and harassed its new financial executive to the point where she was forced to leave her job, an explosive lawsuit against the $9 billion company alleges.

Oil Search has been accused of driving Ayten Saridas out of her job, after it failed to provide a safe workplace and undermined her attempts to raise the alarm over “critical and urgent” funding issues that were allegedly hidden from the company’s board, when she was due to take over from chief financial officer Stephen Gardiner this year.