Dan-Bunkering: We Need Time to Consider Court Appeal Decision

The company will take some time before deciding whether to appeal to a higher court. File Image / Pixabay

Dan-Bunkering has said it will need some time to consider whether or not to appeal a Danish court's verdict that it was guilty of EU sanctions breaches.

Dan-Bunkering, its parent company Bunker Holding and CEO Keld Demant were found guilty of sanctions breaches at a court in Odense on Tuesday.

Demand has been sentenced to a four-month suspended prison sentence, Dan-Bunkering has been fined DKK 30 million ($4.6 million), as well as having profits of DKK 15 million confiscated, and Bunker Holding has been fined DKK 4 million, according to news agency Avisen Danmark.

The defendants had been accused of EU sanctions breaches over 33 jet fuel deals with Russian counterparties in 2015-2017 where the oil allegedly ended up in Syria.

"The court has not found that any of the defendants acted with direct intent to violate EU sanctions," Dan-Bunkering said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

"The court has found that the employees of Dan-Bunkering's Russian office in Kaliningrad, who executed the trades, ought to have known that there was a possibility that Dan-Bunkering's Russian client was going to use the fuel in violation of EU sanctions.

"The court, on the other hand, found no evidence that neither Bunker Holding nor its CEO deliberately acted in violation of EU sanctions, but rather acted with unintentional negligence in relation to the smaller number of trades completed in the spring of 2017.

"Dan-Bunkering notes that the fine levied against the company was a tenth of what the prosecutor had called for, just as Bunker Holding's fine was reduced to 1/20 of the prosecutor's demand.

"In addition, Bunker Holding's CEO was given a significantly reduced sentence compared to the prosecution's demand.

"This is a very complicated case, which is also being reflected in the fact that the judges were not able to reach consensus about the Dan-Bunkering intentions.

"This question was settled with the votes 2-1.

"Dan-Bunkering, Bunker Holding, and Bunker Holding's CEO have from the beginning of the legal process taken the accusations very seriously.

"Therefore, we will now take the necessary time to consider and evaluate the verdict and the premises of the verdict thoroughly before making any decision of whether to appeal to a higher court."