Leading marine fuel supplier,
OW Bunker, has released a statement to say that it has "today [November 5] been informed about a fraud committed by senior employees" at its Singapore-based subsidiary
Dynamic Oil Trading.
"The extent of the fraud is not yet clear, but preliminary findings suggest a potential loss of around USD 125 million," the Danish firm said.
Separately, OW Bunker said that a review of its risk management contracts revealed a "significant risk management loss" in addition to the loss of USD 24.5 million announced in its third quarter earnings report.
"As of today, the mark to market loss is around USD 150 million," OW Bunker said.
Prior to the release of OW Bunker's statement, NASDAQ OMX Copenhagen put trading of OW Bunker shares on hold, pending an announcement from the company.
During the day, ShippingWatch reported that "substantial irregularities" were discovered in Singapore on Tuesday and two employees had been questioned.
OW Bunker later confirmed in its press release that Head of Risk Management and Executive Vice President (EVP),
Jane Dahl Christensen [pictured], had been dismissed with immediate effect as a result of the risk management loss.
Jane Dahl Christensen, together with Søren Christian Meyer (Vice President of the company's Physical Division) and Jan Christensen (Vice President), formed OW Bunker's 'Physical Division Leadership Team', which the company said last year was responsible for "ensuring the consistent delivery of high value and high quality physical supply solutions to OW Bunker’s customers worldwide".
"In order to reduce risk management exposure to an absolute minimum level, risk management contracts are currently being unwound," OW Bunker said in its latest statement.
"The above events affects [
sic] OW Bunker's operations and credit facilities. OW Bunker is currently in discussions with the syndicate banks. OW Bunker will inform the market further as soon as possible," the company added.
