Former OW Bunker Executives to Pay $31 Million Compensation Over Firm's Collapse

Friday's judgement comes more than a decade after OW Bunker's collapse. File Image / Pixabay

Two former OW Bunker executives will be required to pay DKK 200 million ($31.2 million) in compensation in a case relating to the bunker trading company's collapse more than a decade ago.

Former CFO Morten Skou and Lars Møller, director of OW Bunker subsidiary Dynamic Oil Trading, were sentenced to pay the compensation to the firm's bankruptcy estate by a Danish court on Friday.

The bankruptcy estate had originally sought DKK 1.2 billion in compensation.

Former risk manager Jane Dahl Christensen, and the company's former owner, private equity firm Altor, were acquitted.

OW Bunker filed for bankruptcy in November 2014 after being crippled by a $150 million 'risk management' loss related to that year's collapse in oil prices, in addition to what the company described as a $125 million fraud at Dynamic Oil Trading.

The DOT loss was described at the time by OW as a fraud, but something DOT management said was a case of an 'untimely lack of care' as part of a legitimate credit sleeving scheme that saw a large amount of credit being built up with a single third party, Tankoil.

"The CFO should have taken further steps to ensure that the risk was not greater than the risk approved by the executive director," the court said in a summary of the judgement on Friday.

"The national court found that the move on the group credit caused by the trade constituted a loss to the bankruptcy estate, which could be required to be paid to a specific extent by the CFO and the director of the subsidiary.

"The other defendants had not been aware of the circumstances surrounding the specific trade relationship and could therefore not be held liable for this."

The court also found that it was not proven that OW Bunker's trade in oil derivatives had been irresponsible.