Oil Basins says ASIC has written to it, just days after a new board took over, saying it is concerned that McGrath failed in his duty to record the true result of a shareholder vote at the company's annual general meeting on November 30 last year.
ASIC is aware that the remuneration report resolution was passed on a show of hands, despite the fact that 43.20% of the proxy votes received prior to the meeting voted against the adoption of the remuneration report for the year ended June 2015.
The Corporations Act requires that a strike be recorded in the event that over 25% of the shareholders vote against the adoption of the remuneration report, a situation suffered by Woodside Petroleum and AGL Energy this year.
A second strike would see all non-executive directors placed for re-election. Last year Samson Oil & Gas' board was removed following a strong shareholder vote.
The company's ASX statement records that 218 million shares were voted for the report and 168 million against with 3.7 million shares at the discretion of the chair. A further 71.4 million shares were excluded or abstained.
All resolutions at the same meeting were also passed on a show of hands.
The company's new board said it was conducting a review of the voting and actions of its former chairman.
The revelation came just hours after the Melbourne-based explorer confirmed that McGrath and Neil Doyle had been removed as directors at the company's most recent meeting.
The pair were removed in a tight vote recently. McGrath saw 58.5 million votes for his removal and 54.3 million against, while Doyle saw 59.5 million votes against him.
It leaves the board as being Carl Dumbrell, and newly appointed directors Justyn Peters and Vaz Hovanessian.
Challengers Michael Jefferies and Troy Harry found little support with only 22 million shares supporting their election.
The junior further stated that "until further legal clarification of their executive roles following their removal from the board and until further notice, they no longer have the authority to bind the company or communicate with third parties on behalf of the company".
McGrath and Doyle, who co-founded the tiddler a decade ago, had been serving out their contracts in executive roles that they had agreed to step down from when Oil Basins lost operatorship of the Derby block in the Canning Basin to Rey Resources earlier this year.
Oil Basins' website described McGrath as "an internationally experienced resources finance and investment banking executive" with experience at Bank of America Australia and Comalco, who has been general counsel at Alan Bond's Bell Resources.
He is still admitted to practice law in the UK and Victoria.
Oil Basins has assets in the Gippsland, Carnarvon and Canning basins.
Its shares last traded at $0.007.
