SINGAPORE: A man who lied to police about the whereabouts of bunker clerks involved in the S$128 milllion (US$95 million) Shell Pulau Bukom fuel heist was sentenced to two months’ jail on Friday (Jan 31).
Wong Wai Seng, 53, pleaded guilty to one charge of perverting the course of justice.
Four charges of abetting corruption by giving the bunker clerks bribes to stay out of Singapore and avoid investigations were considered in sentencing.
The misappropriation of marine fuel by Shell employees took place between 2007 and 2018 at the Pulau Bukom refinery, Shell’s largest petrochemical production and export centre in Asia Pacific.
One of the scheme’s masterminds, Juandi Pungot, reaped at least S$5.6 million in criminal proceeds and was jailed for 29 years for his role.
The syndicate arranged and conducted illegal loadings of marine fuel onto vessels at below-market rates, distributing the criminal proceeds among themselves.
Two of the vessels that received stolen fuel were Sentek 22 and Sentek 26, which belonged to Sentek Marine & Trading.
Three bunker clerks on these vessels – Boo Pu Wen, Wong Kuin Wah and Wong Wai Meng – were involved in the misappropriation.
Shell made a police report about the stolen fuel in August 2017, and one of Sentek’s employees was arrested in January 2018.
Wong was an operations executive with Sentek. After the employee’s arrest, he helped to relay instructions from Sentek’s managing director Pai Keng Pheng to the three bunker clerks.
These instructions included directing them to leave Singapore as soon as possible in January 2018. As a result, Wong Wai Meng, who was Wong’s brother, left for Medan.
Wong relayed messages from Pai to Boo and Wong Kuin Wah, who were on board different Sentek vessels, telling them not to return to shore, and when to board new vessels to go outside of Singapore’s port limits.
Wong also admitted to telling them to “help” and “endure longer” by staying outside of Singapore.
On Pai’s instructions, Wong also told the bunker clerks to throw away their work phones, which contained messages relating to the fuel heist.
This was to frustrate investigations into Sentek and others’ involvement in the misappropriation of marine fuel, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Vishnu Menon.
Wong eventually relayed Pai’s instructions for the three bunker clerks to go to Batam, where they stayed at the D’Merlion Hotel, which was owned by Sentek’s sister company in Indonesia.
They remained in hiding there for almost three years until January 2021, when they returned to Singapore and were arrested.
During that time, Wong continued handing his brother’s salary to his family, and also visited him in Batam twice.
LIED TO POLICE
In November 2018, the police told Wong to report for his statement to be recorded. Wong informed Pai of this.
Pai told Wong, if asked, to tell the police that the bunker clerks were deployed on the high seas and uncontactable.
Pai also called Wong to a meeting with a middle-aged Chinese man, whom Pai said was a former police officer.
This man told Wong not to worry about the police interview, and briefed him on what the interview process would be like.
The man also said that if the police asked him about the stolen fuel, Wong should say he did not know anything.
Wong thus claimed that the bunker clerks were deployed on the high seas and uncontactable when questioned about them during his first police statement on Nov 20, 2018.
He hid what he knew about their involvement in the heist, their whereabouts, and the fact that he was able to contact them on their personal phones.
He continued to conceal his knowledge in subsequent police statements, obstructing investigations into the misappropriation of marine fuel, said Mr Menon.
At the start of the recording of Wong’s eighth statement on Feb 10, 2021, the police told him that the bunker clerks had been arrested.
It was only at this point that Wong admitted he had lied to the police, and that he had known the bunker clerks were hiding in Batam all along, said Mr Menon.
The prosecutor sought two to four months in jail, arguing that the offences Wong was trying to cover up were serious.
Wong’s actions also prevented the Singapore Police Force (SPF) from gaining access to crucial evidence held by the bunker clerks, Mr Menon argued.
“If the bunker clerks had not chosen to return to Singapore, the lack of their evidence may have been fatal to important parts of SPF’s investigations,” he said.
The prosecutor also argued that Wong’s offences were persistent, sophisticated and committed to protect his own perceived interests, as he had been abetting Pai’s bribery of the bunker clerks.
Wong’s lawyer Hong Qibin said his client played the role of a “mouthpiece” and that all his actions were carried out under Pai’s instructions.
He also argued that Wong voluntarily confessed to the police that he had been lying, but Mr Menon said this was because Wong knew by then that “the game was up”.
The punishment for perverting the course of justice is up to seven years in jail, a fine, or both.
