Glander International Bunkering Says Email "Confession" Over Corrupt Practices Was a "Hoax"

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Wednesday July 27, 2016

Glander International Bunkering (GIB) says an email that was widely circulated throughout the industry on Monday, purporting to be from one of its employees who was making a "confession" over corrupt bunker industry practices, was in fact a hoax.

The email claimed to have been written by GIB's Mumbai, India-based Trader Abhinav Chaturvedi, and over the course of some 2,300 words and 11 screenshots went into considerable detail over the alleged corruption in India, Dubai, and Fujairah, naming several local and global bunker players as well as a number of specific individuals in the process.

While the email in question contained Chaturvedi's email signature, it appeared to originate from a Gmail account rather than the company's own email system.

When contacted on Monday GIB told Ship & Bunker that no-one was immediately available for comment on the matter.

However, on Tuesday, Ajay Menon, Managing Director at GIB's Mumbai Office, sent an email to a number of industry players, which has also been seen by Ship & Bunker, warning of "an increase in the number of hoax emails circulating in the industry."

The latest, he said, contained "baseless and unfounded accusations about several employees in the bunker industry in India and Middle East."

Menon noted that the email was sent from a Gmail account "assumed to be created simply to send hoax emails" rather than Chaturvedi's official email address.

"Glander International Bunkering (India) Private Limited abides by the compliance rules and has no comments or concern about the baseless accusations about certain individuals who are not employed by our group," he wrote.

"The email in question along with the Gmail account will be forwarded to the authorities for further investigation."