Shell heist: Jail for man who helped firm acquire misappropriated fuel worth nearly S$13.6m

[SINGAPORE] A bunker clerk for a Singapore-based firm dealing with fuels helped it acquire more than 21,000 metric tonnes of misappropriated gas oil worth US$9.985 million (S$13.58 million, according to court documents).

Koh Koon Yian, 54, who committed the offences over 36 occasions between August 2014 and May 2017, was sentenced to four years and eight months’ jail on Dec 2.

He had pleaded guilty to multiple counts of helping Sentek Marine & Trading acquire the gas oil which had been misappropriated from Shell Eastern Petroleum’s Pulau Bukom facility.

Throughout the offending period, Koh received at least S$222,600 in criminal benefits, and he has since voluntarily disgorged the amount via a cashier’s order to an investigation officer handling the case.

Gas oil is refined crude oil. It is often used as fuel and an alternative to diesel in some countries.

Koh’s case was linked to the largest marine gas oil heist in Singapore’s history.

Deputy public prosecutors Christopher Ong, Ryan Lim, Niranjan Ranjakunalan, Huo Jiongrui and Vishnu Menon stated in court documents that a group of rogue Shell employees had misappropriated the fuel.

They had secretly siphoned off more than 200,000 tonnes of gas oil, worth over S$120 million, between August 2014 and January 2018.

The group included Muzaffar Ali Khan Muhamad Akram and Juandi Pungot who were dealt with in court earlier, and are no longer working for Shell.

Some of Koh’s former colleagues linked to the case had also been dealt with in court.

They included Alan Tan Cheng Chuan and Wong Wai Meng, also known as Robin

The case involving Sentek’s founder Pai Keng Pheng is still pending.

Court documents stated that some of the rogue Shell employees began selling the misappropriated gas oil to Sentek in or around 2007.

Sentek agreed to buy the misappropriated gas oil at a purchase price a mere 60 per cent of the prevailing estimated market value of the fuel.

Later, the purchase price paid by Sentek increased to 62.5 per cent of the prevailing estimated market value of the gas oil.

In 2013, Koh and Wong were assigned as bunker clerks to a bunkering vessel called Sentek 22.

The DPPs said that another man identified as Ng Hock Teck, who was then a manager in charge of Sentek’s operations, trading and marketing departments, told the pair they would be helping the company receive gas oil misappropriated from Shell Pulau Bukom on board the vessel.

They would also be paid S$10 per metric ton of misappropriated fuel received, and the money would be equally shared between Koh and Wong, the court heard.

Once Sentek 22 berthed at a wharf at Shell Pulau Bukom, at least one of the rogue Shell employees would board the vessel to provide an estimate of the misappropriated gas oil it would receive alongside an official loading of the same fuel.

The bunker clerk on board Sentek 22 would then help to receive both the official and illegal loadings.

The DPPs said: “The misappropriated gas oil was then sold by Sentek to its customers, including foreign vessels, at or around market price or transferred to other vessels owned by Sentek. This was done within days of the receipt of the misappropriated (fuel).”

The prosecutors added that Wong and Koh facilitated these transfers on Ng’s instructions.

In 2017, Koh resigned from Sentek and relocated to Hong Kong with his wife.

On Aug 1, 2017, a Shell representative lodged a police report, stating that Shell had suffered an unidentified loss of gas oil worth around S$2.98 million in April that year.

Koh returned to his Singapore home on Jan 25, 2019 and went through some letters he had received in the meantime, including one from the Criminal Investigation Department, asking him to report for an interview.

Realising that this interview was likely connected to the Shell Pulau Bukom case, he became worried, and booked a plane ticket back to Hong Kong.

The flight was scheduled to depart in the wee hours of Jan 30 that year, so Koh went to Changi Airport the evening before.

However, he was stopped at an immigration checkpoint and arrested before he could board the plane. THE STRAITS TIMES