Ex-Shell Men Charged With Bribing Surveyors

by Ship & Bunker News Team
Tuesday February 23, 2021

The three former Shell employees have been charged with bribery in a Singapore court as part of the investigation into the $200 million gas oil fraud.

The bribery charges follow previous charges of breach of trust against the three relating to the scam involving gas oil taken from Shell's Pulau Bukom plant.

The three ex-employees "have been charged with bribing employees of surveying companies who inspected vessels which the oil giant supplied fuel to", according to regional news provider the Straits Times.

Between 2014 and 2017, Juandi Pungot and Muzaffar Ali Khan Muhamad Akram allegedly conspired to give bribes totalling about $91,900 to 10 employees of surveying companies to inaccurately report the amount of gas oil loaded onto vessels which the employees were engaged to inspect, the report said.

Between 2016 and 2017, Richard Goh Chee Keong is accused of bribing three employees of surveying companies with a total of $25,000 for the same reason.

It is alleged that more than 300,000 metric tonnes of gas oil was filched from the Shell Pulau Bukom plant during the scam's operation.

The three accused will next appear in court on March 19.

A number of people have been investigated in relation to the scam's operation.