Singapore:
A man of Indian descent was one of three surveyors sentenced Thursday to four to eight months in prison by a Singapore court for taking bribes to cover up the unauthorized transfer of sea gas to ships supplied to oil giant Shell.
Anand Omprekas, 39, along with Malaysian descent Noruliman Bakti, 40, and Muhammad Khairul Asri Mohamad Hanafiah, 38, pleaded guilty to corruption, each receiving between $6,000 and $25,000 in bribes.
Another surveyor who appeared in court, Erwin Suhardi Jamaluddin, 38, is accused of receiving $10,000 in bribes and will appear in court in July, The Straits Times reported.
They were among 12 surveyors charged on April 14 for taking bribes from Shell employees Juandi Pungot, Muzaffar Ali Khan Muhamad Akram and Richard Goh Chee Keong.
The 12 are accused of taking bribes totaling nearly SGD 300,000 between 2014 and 2017. Most of their cases are pending.
The gas oil embezzlement began as early as 2007, when Juandi Pungot – one of the main masterminds in the heist – took advantage of siphoned gas that was sold at lower prices.
For years, the syndicate used bribes and various methods to evade detection, leveraging their combined knowledge of Shell’s internal systems.
On March 31, Juandi Pungot was sentenced to 29 years in prison for his role in masterminding the embezzlement of more than 200,000 tons of gas oil worth SGD 128 million.
According to the Singaporean daily, this is one of the longest prison terms for a commercial crime.
At least 26 people have been taken to court for this conspiracy, which was first spotted by Shell in 2015 when it noted significant unidentified oil spills on Pulau (island) Bukom.
The maximum penalty for a corruption offense is a fine of SGD 100,000 and five years in prison.
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