OW Bunker: $125 Million Has "Disappeared" from Former Singapore Top 10 Bunker Supplier Tankoil, Say Financial Investigators

John Sommer Schmidt, OW Bunker trustee, says financial investigators have found "that there is little value in Tankoil."

Investigations into Singapore's bankrupt former top 10 bunker supplier Tankoil Marine Services (Tankoil), key debtor of the now-defunct OW Bunker subsidiary Dynamic Oil Trading (DOT), has not turned up any money, leaving a missing $125 million still unaccounted for, Danish media reports.

John Sommer Schmidt, OW Bunker trustee from law firm Gorrissen Federspiel, says that investigations into Tankoil's financial books has shown that the company's accounts are empty.

"Unfortunately, we have found that there is little value in Tankoil. There is no bank account with money or anything else, for example oil stocks. The estate is actually empty," said Schmidt.

"The 125 million U.S. dollars has disappeared," added Schmidt, noting that they had hoped to find the money or at least the equivalent value somewhere in Tankoil's company.

FTI Consulting is said to have been running the investigation into Tankoil's financial situation since the summer in hopes of uncovering the truth about what happened to about DKK750 million ($109.42 million) that went missing upon OW Bunker's collapse.

Now a year after OW Bunker collapse, Schmidt says he had hoped the investigations would have been able to glean some answers as to the money's whereabouts, but comments that "the real world is not always quite so simple."

"The liquidators have been through everything, and they know now that there is no money.

"Of course I hope that we can find out what happened when you put the puzzle together with pieces from DOT," he added of the continuing investigations.

The missing $125 million in question, widely considered a key factor in the downfall of OW Bunker, was at the time of its bankruptcy described by OW Bunker management as a product of fraud at DOT, but has been defended by lawyers acting on behalf of DOT management as a legitimate case of credit sleeving that had suffered from an "untimely lack of care."

In August, Tankoil declared bankruptcy, enabling the company's financial relationship with DOT to be examined.