Jasbir Singh Paramjit Singh pleaded guilty on Friday to a graft charge and is expected to be sentenced on Nov 15. - ST
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): A surveyor, tasked to check on the quantity of cargo such as fuel loaded into the tanks of vessels, accepted bribes totalling US$15,000 (S$21,220) on three occasions between 2014 and 2015.
Jasbir Singh Paramjit Singh, who was then working for Intertek Testing Services, accepted the money in exchange for not accurately reporting the amount of cargo loaded onto the vessels that the firm was engaged to inspect.
As a result, the misappropriation of gas oil worth more than US$567,000 went undetected by oil giant Shell in 2015.
Singh, now 38, pleaded guilty on Friday to a graft charge and is expected to be sentenced on Nov 15.
Gas oil is refined crude oil and is often used as fuel and an alternative to diesel in some countries.
One of the masterminds of the heist, former Shell employee Juandi Pungot, then 45, was jailed for 29 years in March for siphoning nearly $128 million worth of gas oil.
The cases involving several others allegedly linked to the case, including Muzaffar Ali Khan Muhamad Akram, 41, and Tiah Kok Hwee, 45, are pending.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Norman Yew said Juandi and Muzaffar were the masterminds of a long-term and large-scale conspiracy to misappropriate gas oil from Shell’s manufacturing site on Pulau Bukom.
He added that in or around 2013, they approached Singh to discuss how they could collaborate to sell misappropriated gas oil to vessels docked at Shell Pulau Bukom.
Singh agreed to assist the pair and roped in his colleague, A. Duraisamy, to provide further assistance.
Singh and Duraisamy were later part of a group that agreed not to accurately report the amount of cargo loaded onto vessels and to turn a blind eye to the misappropriation of gas oil at Shell Pulau Bukom.
They did so in exchange for money from Muzaffar and/or Juandi, said the prosecutor.
Singh later received bribes totalling US$15,000.
Duraisamy, then 60, was sentenced to 10 months’ jail and a fine of $42,870.60 in August.
On Aug 1, 2017, a Shell representative lodged a police report, stating that it suffered unidentified loss of fuel amounting to about $2.98 million earlier that year.
The police started their investigation and alerted the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau in September 2018.
Singh was among 12 people who were later charged with graft-related offences in April 2022.
