Bunker Holding chief Keld Demant has been given a four-month prison sentence for breaking European Union sanctions against jet fuel sales to Syria, and the Danish fuels group fined more than $5.2m.
Demant was handed the suspended sentence by the City Court of Odense and the bunker group's Dan-Bunkering unit was fined DKr30m ($4.6m) and parent company Bunker Holding, DKr4m ($610,000).
A total of 172,000 tonnes of jet fuel worth about DKr647m ($103m) was sold between 2015 and 2017 to two Russian companies with delivery in the eastern Mediterranean, according to court documents.
Dan-Bunkering was accused of making 33 trades during the period and was fined an amount roughly equivalent to double what was earned on the fuel trades. A further DKr15.65m of profit was confiscated.
The judges found that Dan-Bunkering "must have realised that it was overwhelmingly probable that the jet fuel would be used by the Russian military in Syria," according to a Reuters report.
Dan-Bunkering had been behind all 33 trades, while Bunker Holding and Demant had participated in the last eight trades, it added.
Lawyers for Bunker Holding and Demant said in court that that only Dan-Bunkering was responsible for the jet fuel trade.
A statement released by Bunker Holding after the trial said the court has not found that any of the defendants had acted with direct intent to violate EU sanctions.
The group said it "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".
The two Russian companies involved in the trades were described as general agents of the Russian Navy in the court hearings. It was alleged they delivered the jet fuel to Port Banias in Syria where it was used by the Russian air force for military operations in Syria.
Bunker Holding said it was a complicated case that was settled by judges voting two to one about Dan-Bunkering's intentions.
Bunker Holding’s fine was reduced to one twentieth of the prosecutor’s demand, it added.
Previously Bunker Holding and Dan-Bunkering had issued a joint statement rejecting the allegations when charges were formally laid in late 2020, stating: "Internal investigations have revealed no signs that anyone within Bunker Holding or Dan-Bunkering had any knowledge of the alleged breaches of EU sanctions." the companies said
"We have not supplied fuel to companies included in the EU sanctions list at the time of our business dealings with them," they added at that time.
