Founder of collapsed oil trader Zenrock had cheating and other charges abated after his death

THE founder of collapsed oil trader Zenrock Commodities who was accused of multiple offences including cheating had all of his charges abated following his death.

Xie Chun’s four charges were abated following a pre-trial conference on Jan 9.

Without revealing details about his death, an Attorney-General’s Chambers spokesperson told The Straits Times on Jan 14: “The criminal charges against Xie Chun were abated on the application of the defence after the accused passed away on Jan 3.”

This means the 47-year-old Singaporean’s court proceedings over his charges have come to an end.

Zenrock was founded in 2014 by a group of veteran oil traders including Xie, who was formerly from Chinese oil trading giant Unipec.

Zenrock was placed under judicial management in May 2020 with debts of more than US$600 million.

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The company was one of several high-profile traders to collapse in 2020 following a crash in oil prices during the Covid-19 pandemic, exposing hidden financial troubles and wrongdoings.

In 2022, Xie, who was also the former director of Zenrock, and his former operations executive, Zhang Taiming, 34, were each charged with two counts of cheating as well as one count each of criminal breach of trust and forgery for the purpose of cheating.

In an earlier statement, the police said that the Commercial Affairs Department’s investigations revealed that some time between February and March 2020, Xie and Zhang allegedly used forged documents to cheat the Bank of China (Singapore) of US$54 million.

A police spokesperson added that both men were also alleged to have committed criminal breach of trust by dishonestly reassigning to the bank the proceeds from a sale of cargo oil that it had charged to Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (Singapore).

The pair also allegedly cheated Credit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank of US$17 million, said the police.

The case involving Zhang, a Chinese national, is still pending. His pre-trial conference will take place on Feb 7.

For each count of cheating and forgery for the purpose of cheating, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.

An offender convicted of criminal breach of trust can be jailed for up to seven years and fined.