Singapore authorities have charged two men for alleged corruption in relation to the trade and supply of bunker fuels, the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said in a statement.
The two men charged are Afzal Bin Mohamed Ekbar and Shafiq Bin Nezammuddin who were a bunker trader of KPI Bridge Oil Singapore and director of Straits Bunkering respectively at the time of the alleged offences.
Afzal is alleged to have obtained kickbacks totaling at least $191,250 from Shafiq as rewards for nominating Straits Bunkering for the supply of bunker fuel to KPI’s customers between June 2017 and August 2018.
Afzal had also allegedly obtained a gratification in the form of an SGD 90,000 ($67,000) loan from Shafiq as an inducement for the same purpose.
For their actions, Afzal and Shafiq will each face three charges for offences punishable under Section 6(a) and Section 6(b) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, respectively, of which two charges are amalgamated under Section 124(4) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
In addition, between July 2017 and September 2018, Afzal allegedly gave kickbacks totaling at least $161,800 and SGD 5,000 combined to other individuals on multiple occasions as inducements or rewards for them to place orders with KPI for the supply of bunker fuel.
For his actions, Afzal will face nine additional charges for offences punishable under Section 5(b)(i) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, of which four charges are amalgamated under Section 124(4) of the Criminal Procedure Code.
KPI OceanConnect (formerly KPI Bridge Oil) told TradeWinds that it has a “strict code of conduct” that abides to a zero-tolerance policy towards any kind of misconduct regarding several areas including corruption.
“As a result, the employee in question was suspended in 2018, when KPI OceanConnect was first approached by Singaporean authorities, from all duties pending the ongoing investigation and has not worked for the company since then,” a spokeswoman said.
“Following yesterday’s charges, we have decided to terminate the employment as we cannot accept any suspicion that our traders do not live up to the company’s high standards of business practice,” she added.
Since the first request, KPI OceanConnect said it has worked closely together with Singaporean authorities in solving this matter.
“The company has on several occasions supplied CPIB with documentation and information to help shed light on the case at hand,” the spokeswoman said.
Singapore adopts a strict zero-tolerance approach towards corruption and any person who is convicted of such offences can be fined up to SGD 100,000 or be sent to jail for up to five years or to both.
Singapore, the world’s top bunkering hub, has tightened rules in recent years to boost transparency and prevent cheating in the notoriously opaque industry.
Nine men have recently been handed jail sentences in Singapore for their part in a scam to defraud shipowners of $336,930 worth of bunker fuel.
They ranged from two weeks to up to almost three years for the masterminds of the scam that used industrial strength magnets to tamper with mass flow meters on the bunker tankers Southernpec 6 and Southernpec 7.
Singapore sold close to 50m tonnes of bunkers in 2020, according to figures compiled by the Maritime and Port Authority.
