New charges served on 9 suspects in Shell fuel heist, police widen dragnet

SINGAPORE — Authorities have levelled more charges against nine Singaporean men behind a multi-million fuel heist from Shell’s Pulau Bukom plant, while more suspects were arrested in connection with the case.

At least 20 suspects were arrested so far, following a sting operation on Jan 7 that nabbed 17 people. More arrests could come, TODAY understands.

So far, 14 people — 11 Singaporeans and three Vietnamese nationals — have been charged in connection with the heist. It is unclear when the remaining suspects would be hauled to court. The total amount involved is now around S$3.6 million.

On Monday (Jan 15), additional charges were brought against nine of the suspects.

Five of them, who were Shell employees at the time of their offences, were slapped with two additional charges over two more instances of them conspiring to misappropriate gas oil at their company’s Bukom manufacturing site.

Muzaffar Ali Khan Muhamad Akram, 36, Juandi Pungot, 41, Cai Zhi Zhong, 35, Tiah Kok Hwee, 41, and Koh Choon Wei, 35, allegedly stole 300 metric tonnes of gas oil worth S$165,000 in the wee hours of Nov 11 last year, as well as 1,077 metric tonnes of gas oil worth S$592,300 on the evening of Dec 31.

Also served an extra charge is Muhammad Ali Muhammad Nor, 51, who is not a Shell employee.

His charge sheets showed he was involved in the Dec 31 conspiracy by engaging with the five Shell employees, as well as Vietnamese national Doan Xuan Than, 45, who was arrested later and had been charged last Saturday with dishonestly receiving 1,349 metric tonnes of gas oil worth S$736,445 at 8pm on Dec 31.

It is unclear who Muhammad Ali was working for.

Meanwhile, three other Shell employees who were mired in the case were served one more charge for committing a similar act in the early hours of Nov 14.

On that day, Mohd Ibrahim K Abdul Majid, 52, Abdul Latif Ibrahim, 59, and Richard Goh Chee Keong, 48, allegedly engaged in a conspiracy to steal 846 metric tonnes of Shell’s gas oil valued at S$465,520.

If convicted of these charges, they could be jailed for up to 15 years and subjected to a fine.

These nine suspects were earlier charged with criminal breach of trust by a clerk or servant on Jan 9. They were among the 17 people arrested in the police sting operation, which was launched after Shell Singapore lodged a report last August about the misappropriation of their fuel.

In that operation, the law-enforcement agencies seized around S$3.05 million in cash, as well as a tanker weighing approximately 12,000 tonnes.

Much remains unknown about the case. But according to court documents last Tuesday, five of the suspects — Muzaffar Ali, Juandi, Cai, Tiah and Koh — allegedly conspired and abetted to misappropriate 2,322 metric tonnes of gas oil worth S$1.3 million at Pulau Bukom on Nov 21 last year.

The five were allegedly at it again on Jan 7. This time, they conspired with Muhammad Ali and stole some 1,260 tonnes of Shell fuel, valued at around S$688,000, shortly before they were arrested.

The loot was then moved onto a Panama-registered vessel, Prime South, where two Vietnamese nationals allegedly received the fuel. Nguyen Duc Quang, 46, and Dang Van Hanh, 37, were charged last Tuesday with abetment by conspiracy to dishonestly receive the fuel. Their case will be heard in court again on Tuesday.

As for Goh, Ibrahim and Latif, they allegedly conspired on Jan 5 to misappropriate more than 800 tonnes of fuel, worth around S$437,800, from the company.

The nine suspects will be remanded for another week till Jan 22 when their cases will be heard in court again. Many of their family members were in court on Monday morning, and appeared concerned.

Asking for privacy, an unidentified family member of Koh told TODAY: “It is not easy for the family.”

In serving the nine suspects with additional charges on Monday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Stephanie Chew told District Judge Christopher Goh that they could face further charges pending further investigation. There could also be possible fresh arrests, with DPP Chew pointing out that three more people who were arrested in the police’s follow-up investigations were charged on Saturday.

Besides Doan, two other suspects who are not Shell employees — Alan Tan Cheng Chuan, 45, and Ng Hock Teck, 54 — were charged on Saturday with one count of abetting the commission of an offence of criminal breach of trust as servants each.