Singapore, Apr 14: Five Indian-origin men were among 12 persons charged on Thursday for taking bribes in the USD 94.52 million fuel heist reported in Singapore’s Pulau island refinery in 2017.
The scheme ran for about 10 years at the Royal Dutch Shell refinery on Pulau (island) Bukom, Channel News Asia reported.
It was orchestrated by current and former workers at the refinery, who arranged the illegal loadings of marine fuel for vessels at below market rates.
The Indian-origin men charged are A Duraisamy, 60, who faces three charges for allegedly accepting USD 31,000; Anand Omprekas, 39, who faces two charges of accepting USD 14,770; Jasbir Singh Paramjit Singh, 37, who faces one charge of accepting USD 15,000; Kumunan Rethana Kumaran, 40, who faces one charge of accepting USD 12,000; Paramanandham Srinivasan, 39, who faces one charge of accepting USD 3,000.
The 12 men charged on Thursday were employees of external surveying companies engaged by Shell to inspect the volume of fuel loaded onto vessels, according to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau.
They are accused of accepting about USD 221,530 in bribes as a reward for not accurately reporting the amount of fuel loaded on the vessels they inspected. The surveyors allegedly received bribes from former Shell employees Juandi Pungot, Muzaffar Ali Khan Muhamad Akram and Richard Goh Chee Keong.
Juandi, identified as a key mastermind of the heist, was jailed 29 years last month. Muzaffar and Goh’s cases are pending.
The scheme came to light in August 2017, when Shell filed a police report over an unidentified loss of fuel amounting to about SGD 2.22 million in April that year. The entire extent of the heist has been put down to USD 94.52 million.
Apart from paying off the surveyors, the syndicate employed sophisticated techniques such as configuring the flow of the stolen fuel and timing it against legitimate fuel transfers.
Their employers are listed as Intertek Testing Services, Inspectorate Singapore, CCIC Singapore and SGS Testing And Control Services Singapore.
Four of the accused, including Anand Omprekas, have indicated that they will plead guilty, court records show.
The penalty for corruption is jail for up to five years, a fine of up to USD 73,840 or both. (PTI)
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