In case you missed it, Mesa announced Monday that Peter Murnane had been relieved of his CFO duties.

Mesa named William Hoke, its vice president of finance, as interim chief financial officer.

I don’t think Mesa had much choice in this matter. After U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Faris’ rulings (both the one directed towards Peter’s destruction of evidence and the ruling against Mesa in terms of damages in the Hawaiian case) there was a big problem of having an officer of the company still on the payroll who had been directly involved in these actions.

Not something the SEC looks favorably towards. Nor, you would think, would shareholders.

According to the Arizona Republic, Mesa attorney Brian Gillman, said Monday that Murnane will not receive severance because his employment contract, which wasn’t due to expire until 2010, says there will be no severance if he was fired for cause.

What has not been disclosed however, is whether Murnane and Ornstein will sever their other mutual business interests. Both are involved in a number of business entities, besides Mesa, which were outlined in the airline’s 2006 annual report.  These “subsidiary” companies include Nilchii, Patar, Ping Shan, MAGI Insurance and Ritz Hotel Management.

Ticker: (HA:AMEX), (MESA:Nasdaq)

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