Some semblance of closure behind the Pulau Bukom fuel heist has finally come to light on Tuesday (8 Feb) after one of the masterminds behind the scheme pleaded guilty.
Juandi Pungot, a former Shell technician, pleaded guilty to 36 charges in relation to the case where marine gas oil was misappropriated from the Pulau Bukom refinery.
The decade-long scheme saw at least 300,000 tonnes of gas oil siphoned out of the refinery to foreign vessels at lower prices. The shady gas oil was estimated to be worth at least $200,000,000.
The prosecution is seeking a jail term of 30 years for Mr Juandi, who remains out on bail until the next court date.
According to TODAY Online, Mr Juandi, along with his conspirators, managed to keep their crimes hidden through various methods.
This includes a combination of disguising their siphoning of oil with legitimate timings, distracting their supervisors, and tampering with security cameras.
The court also found that Mr Juandi had bribed several independent surveyors between 2014 and 2017. The bribes were found to be in the region of $270,000.
During the decade when the fuel heist occurred, Mr Juandi pocketed around $10,00-$15,000 for each illegal loading.
He eventually resigned from his job with Shell in 2017 after hearing of potential police investigations into the matter. However, he continued to collect and distribute money from the operation.
In a separate report by The New Paper, Mr Juandi was revealed to have pocketed at least $5.6 million in total.
The majority of the sum was spent on luxury goods, real estate, and cars. He also converted around $550,000 into casino chips at Marina Bay Sands between 2012 and 2016.
Mr Juandi was finally arrested in Jan 2018, with the prosecution seeking 30 years in jail for the unprecedented crime.
His lawyers have since appealed for a reduction to 15 years, claiming that he wasn’t the “sole mastermind” and that he had been cooperative.
He remains out on bail with the next court date unspecified at the time of this article.
A scheme this complex, with enormous amounts of money involved, is truly unprecedented in Singapore.
Hopefully, the authorities get to the bottom of this incident and dish out punishment to those involved.
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Featured image adapted from Shell Singapore.
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