Former CFO of Singapore Supplier Coastal Oil Receives Nine-Year Prison Sentence

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Wednesday May 5, 2021

The former chief financial officer of defunct Singapore bunker supplier Coastal Oil has received a nine-year prison sentence for his role in a $320 million fraud.

Last month Ong Ah Huat pleaded guilty to 15 charges related to using forged documents to accessing about $320 million in loans.

Eight banks -- China Merchant Bank, Bank of Communications (Hong Kong), BNP Paribas SA (Hong Kong), Cooperative Rabobank (Hong Kong), DBS Bank (Hong Kong), HSBC (Hong Kong), OCBC (Hong Kong) and Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) -- were defrauded between June 2017 and December 2018.

Ong was sentenced to nine years of jail on Monday, news provider the Business Times reported this week. The sentence is due to begin on May 31.

Coastal Oil filed for voluntary liquidation in December 2018, and allegations of debt fraud emerged in January 2019.