OW Bunker: Lawyer Presents Further Evidence in Defence of Alleged Dynamic Oil Trading Fraud

OW Bunker has accused the DOT pair of committing fraud

Lawyers for ex-Dynamic Oil Trading (DOT) CEO, Lars Møller, and Financial Manager, Kimmie Goh, say they have established further evidence that OW Bunker management must have known about large debts run up by Tankoil Marine Services (Tankoil), Tradewinds reports.

A key claim from the DOT side is that it shared a credit line with its parent, meaning any credit it advanced to customers was visible centrally by OW Bunker's management.

"DOT did not have its own credit line for oil trading," said Anders Nemeth, lawyer for Goh.

"If it advanced DKK750 million [$124 million] to Tankoil, it was only able to access this liquidity from OW's central credit line."

Ex-OW Bunker Chairman Niels Henrik Jensen has stated that credit extended to Tankoil was not approved by the board of OW Bunker, and repeated the policy set out in OW Bunker's Initial Public Offering (IPO) Prospectus from this year that Lars Møller was required to seek approval before offering credit lines over $10 million.

Nemeth also claimed that DOT had taken security from Tankoil against outstanding debts, including the 6,316 deadweight tonne bunker tanker Sophie 9 and an office building in Singapore.

"Why take security if a customer is not in debt," he said.

"It shows that management must have known that Tankoil had built up debt."

Management Must Have Known

Nemeth further asked why OW Bunker switched its group accounting policies for its most recent quarterly report, classifying all income from customers within 120 days of delivery as operating income, rather than allocating a portion as interest income.

A large interest income figure may have suggested to financial analysts that extensive lending activities were being conducted by the group.

The losses resulting from outstanding Tankoil debts have been said to amount to $125 million and the large credit line offered by DOT to Tankoil was described by OW Bunker management at the time as a "fraud."

Møller has denied fraud and Goh's lawyer, Nemeth, said he has heard nothing about a criminal investigation.

Text messages between Møller and ex-OW Bunker CEO Jim Pedersen last week revealed there had been discussion of DOT's position regarding Tankoil in the days leading up to OW Bunker filing for bankruptcy.