Singapore authorities have charged two individuals in court for alleged corruption regarding the trade and supply of marine fuels.
According to Reuters, Afzal Bin Mohamed Ekbar, a bunker trader at KPI Bridge Oil Singapore Pte Ltd at the time, had allegedly obtained at least $191,000 on multiple occasions between 2017 and 2018 from the director of Straits Bunkering Pte Ltd, as kickbacks for nominating Straits for the supply of bunker fuel to KPI’s customers.
In addition, Afzal had allegedly given gratifications of around $165,000 to other individuals on multiple occasions as “inducements or rewards for them to place orders with KPI for the supply of bunker fuel.”
Singapore has already tightened rules in recent years to boost transparency and prevent cheating in the notoriously opaque industry.
In fact, in September, authorities sentenced nine people to up to three years in jail for cheating buyers out of $337,000 worth of shipping fuel.
