Eight former employees of Shell’s refinery in Singapore have been jailed for between six and 29 years for siphoning marine gas oil from the oil major’s refinery in the city-state.
On 31 March, one of the masterminds, Juandi Pungot, was jailed for 29 years after admitting to embezzling 203,403 tonnes of MGO over a 12-year period from 2007 to 2018. The fuel, worth US$140 million, is believed to have been transferred to several tankers, including one vessel called Prime South, and sold to foreign buyers.
The refinery, on Singapore’s offshore island of Pulau Bukom, is Shell’s largest refinery globally.
The misappropriation went undetected for nearly a decade, as the perpetrators, familiar with Shell’s internal systems, configured the flow of gas oil to avoid routes with custody transfer meters. It was not until 2015 that Shell noticed significant oil loss from the Pulau Bukom facility and carried out its own investigations over the next two years and made a police report in August 2017.
Singapore police confiscated the Prime South, owned by a Vietnamese company, Prime Shipping Corp., in October 2020 and auctioned it off subsequently.
Also convicted for their roles in the misappropriation are Juandi’s former colleagues, shore loading officers Muzaffar Ali Khan, Koh Choon Wei and Tiah Kok Hwee; process technicians Cai Zhizhong, Muhammad Ashraf Hamzah, Muhamad Farhan Mohamed Rashid and Sadagopan Premnat; and blending specialist Quek Rong Hong.
Farhan is awaiting sentencing, while four Vietnamese captains/seafarers, Nguyen Duc Quang, Doan Xuan Than, Dang Van Hanh and Pham Van Ban, on some tankers used in the heist have also been jailed.
Juandi, who made around US$4 million from the loot, used the ill-gotten gains to purchase a Mercedes Benz car, a condominium unit in Singapore, properties in Thailand and Indonesia, and open restaurants in Singapore and Malaysia.
In a passing sentence, High Court judge Hoo Sheau Peng said that the offences struck the core of the bunkering and petrochemical industry, which is one of the cornerstones of Singapore’s economy.
Judge Hoo said, “The massive scale of offending is unprecedented. The length of offending is substantial. The offences were premeditated, planned and sophisticated in nature. Exploiting their in-depth knowledge of Shell’s systems, the accused and the co-conspirators were able to conceal their offending for a prolonged period of time.”
Martina Li
Asia Correspondent
