SINGAPORE: The Vietnamese captain of a tanker called Prime Synergy had the vessel docked at Pulau Bukom in March 2017 when 1,064 metric tonnes of misappropriated gas oil worth US$496,270 (S$663,512) was loaded into its tanks.
Phan Xuan Binh, 50, had told investigators that he was then instructed to take the tanker to a certain location in open waters and use a walkie-talkie to contact an unnamed small vessel.
The misappropriated gas oil was discharged onto it, and he was paid US$4,000 when he reached Ho Chi Minh City in his home country.
Binh, whom the prosecution described as a key member in a conspiracy to dishonestly receive 1,064 metric tonnes of the stolen fuel from oil giant Shell’s Pulau Bukom refinery, was sentenced to a year in jail on Thursday (Nov 30) after he pleaded guilty to one count of receiving stolen goods.
Gas oil is refined crude oil and is often used as fuel and an alternative to diesel in some countries.
Binh was just one of multiple people to be dealt with in court who were linked to a massive conspiracy to misappropriate gas oil from Shell.
One of the masterminds behind the scheme, former Shell employee Juandi Pungot, then 45, who began embezzling the fuel from the firm in 2007, admitted in February 2022 to misappropriating 203,403 tonnes of gas oil worth $128 million.
Juandi was given 29 years’ jail in March 2022, and in sentencing him, High Court judge Hoo Sheau Peng had said: “The massive scale of offending is unprecedented. The length of offending is substantial. A sophisticated syndicate was involved. Foreign buyers were involved.”
The cases involving others allegedly linked to the case - including Abdul Latif Ibrahim and Richard Goh Chee Keong - are pending.
As for Binh’s case, Deputy Public Prosecutor Kiera Yu said that at the time of his offence, Prime Synergy was owned by Vietnam-based Prime Shipping Corporation.
He worked for the firm from late 2015 to December 2017.
He was the captain of Prime Synergy when it was docked at Pulau Bukom on March 30, 2017 to receive legally purchased gas oil as well as the misappropriated fuel.
According to court documents, one Tran Quang Tuan, who was the chairman of Prime Shipping Corporation between 2007 and 2018, then boarded the vessel and told Binh to make preparations to receive the stolen fuel.
Tuan, who is still at large, then left the vessel which received the fuel.
On Aug 1, 2017, a Shell representative lodged a police report, stating that the company suffered unidentified loss of fuel amounting to about $2.98 million earlier that year.
The Singapore Police Force conducted a large-scale operation on Jan 7, 2018 in relation to the case, leading to the arrest of numerous individuals.
Subsequent investigations brought to light that Prime Synergy had received misappropriated gas oil from Pulau Bukom.
Binh, who has made no restitution to Shell for his offence, was arrested on April 18, 2023, when he entered Singapore. - The Straits Times/ANN
