Chua Boon Chye, the former Aegean employee and bunker fuel trader, has been charged by Singapore's Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) in April 2012 for stealing marine fuel oil back in 2007.
The verdict for the case will be heard in Singapore on 13 November, according to a news report by Platts.
Chua was charged for “instigating one Thet Lwin to commit an offence of dishonestly receiving stolen property... by instructing... Thet Lwin to receive 105 metric tonnes of marine fuel oil valued at SGD96,106.70 ($76,800) belonging to... Chevron Singapore Pte Ltd, when... [Chua] had reason to believe the said marine fuel oil to be stolen property,” court documents said.
Defence lawyers for Chua said the accused was not on board the bunker tanker when the allegedly stolen bunker fuel was received by the bunker clerk, Thet Lwin.
The defence lawyers added that the bunker clerk was the only person on board when the bunker fuel was received and the “issue of receipt” in this case was essential to the charge of “receiving stolen property”, Platts reported.
The lawyers also argued that Chua sourced for the fuel but did not receive the physical fuel itself nor take commission for the bunkering operation transaction.
In another case, a chief engineer was sentenced to two weeks jail in August this year over a bunker scam involving $18,000 worth of marine fuel oil.
The Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA), the regulator for Singapore's bunkering industry, has expressed “zero tolerance” for corrupted practices during bunkering operations.
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