SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): A man who accepted bribes totalling US$15,000 (S$20,514, according to court documents), in exchange for not accurately reporting the amount of cargo such as fuel loaded onto vessels at Shell’s Pulau Bukom petrochemical production centre, was sentenced to four months’ jail on Tuesday (Nov 15).
Jasbir Singh Paramjit Singh, 38, who was then working as a surveyor for Intertek Testing Services, was also ordered to pay a penalty of $20,514 – the amount of bribes received.
He will spend an additional six weeks behind bars if he fails to pay back the amount.
Singh, who pleaded guilty on Nov 4 to a graft charge, had accepted bribes on three occasions between 2014 and 2015.
As a result, the misappropriation of gas oil worth more than US$567,000 (S$778,000) went undetected by oil giant Shell in 2015.
Gas oil is refined crude oil that is often used as fuel and an alternative to diesel in some countries.
One of the masterminds of the heist, former Shell employee Juandi Pungot, then 45, was jailed for 29 years in March for siphoning nearly $128 million worth of gas oil.
The cases involving several others allegedly linked to the case, including Muzaffar Ali Khan Muhamad Akram, 41, and Tiah Kok Hwee, 45, are pending.
In earlier proceedings, Deputy Public Prosecutor Norman Yew said Juandi and Muzaffar were the masterminds of a long-term and large-scale conspiracy to misappropriate gas oil from Shell’s manufacturing site on Pulau Bukom.
In or around 2013, they approached Singh to discuss how they could collaborate to sell misappropriated gas oil to vessels docked at Shell Pulau Bukom.
Singh agreed to assist the pair and roped in his colleague, A. Duraisamy, to provide further assistance.
Singh and Duraisamy were later part of a group that agreed to misreport the amount of cargo loaded onto vessels and to turn a blind eye to the misappropriation of gas oil at Shell Pulau Bukom.
They did so in exchange for money from Muzaffar and/or Juandi, said the prosecutor.
Singh later received bribes totalling US$15,000.
Duraisamy, then 60, was sentenced to 10 months’ jail and a fine of $42,870.60 in August.
On Aug 1, 2017, a Shell representative lodged a police report, stating that the company suffered an unidentified loss of fuel earlier that year, amounting to about $2.98 million.
The police started their investigation and alerted the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau in September 2018.
Singh was among 12 people who were later charged with graft-related offences in April 2022.
