Vietnamese man charged over alleged conspiracy to receive stolen fuel from Shell worth over $1m
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SINGAPORE - He was the captain of a ship when he allegedly conspired with others to receive stolen gas oil worth more than US$790,000 in 2017,
On Thursday, Vietnamese national Phan Xuan Binh, 49, was charged in a Singapore district court with two counts of dishonestly receiving stolen property.
He is accused of committing the offences with three others – Tran Quang Tuan, Nguyen Manh Cuong and Nguyen Quoc Tuan.
Details about the trio and Binh’s current occupation were not disclosed in court documents.
Gas oil is refined crude oil that is often used as fuel and an alternative to diesel in some countries.
The stolen fuel of at least 1,679 metric tons was said to have been transferred from Pulau Bukom to a vessel called Prime Synergy on March 30 and April 25 in 2017.
The police said on Wednesday evening that at the time of the alleged offences, Binh was the captain of a vessel owned by Prime Shipping Corporation. They did not give the name of the vessel.
Binh was not in Singapore when investigators probed into the matter, and was arrested on Tuesday when he arrived here. The police did not say why and how he came to Singapore.
Binh’s case has been adjourned to June 1.
For each charge of dishonestly receiving stolen property, an offender can be jailed for up to five years and fined.
Court documents also did not disclose if Binh’s case is related to another one involving Shell, which had been described as the largest and most sophisticated marine gas oil heist in Singapore’s history.
One of the heist masterminds, former Shell employee Juandi Pungot, then 45, was jailed for 29 years in March 2022 for siphoning nearly $128 million worth of gas oil.
Several others were earlier dealt with in court for other offences related to the case.
They included Jasbir Singh Paramjit Singh, then 38, who was given four months’ jail over a graft charge, and Tiah Kok Hwee, then 46, who was jailed for 16 years and four months after pleading guilty to multiple charges including criminal breach of trust.
The cases involving several others allegedly linked to the case – including Muzaffar Ali Khan Muhamad Akram and Richard Goh Chee Keong – are pending.
