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The Danish media has today (November 6) attempted to shed some light on the events that took place yesterday prior to the release of OW Bunker's statement, when it was claimed that fraud had been committed by senior employees at its Singapore-based subsidiary, Dynamic Oil Trading, and that the company had incurred a potential loss of around USD 125 million.

Danish maritime site ShippingWatch claims that OW Bunker was, in fact, in the process of sealing a new deal with a group of banks - which Bunker Index understands to be 11 international banks plus the Scandinavia-based Danske Bank and Nordea - following extensive negotiations.

A new risk management programme had been agreed and former risk manager, Kenneth Rosenmeyer - current owner of Myproject Trading - had also been convinced to rejoin his old firm and head the new project, ShippingWatch says.

However, the whole scenario appears to have turned on its head yesterday when an unexpected visitor arrived at OW Bunker's head office in Aalborg from Singapore.

According to Berlingske newspaper, it was Dynamic Oil Trading's chief executive officer, Lars Møller, and some of his colleagues who arrived unannounced. ShippingWatch mentions an unnamed manager from Dynamic Oil Trading, who spoke to his bosses in Aalborg and "came clean".

"He showed up just as we were in a positive dialogue to [finalize] a deal for the future with the banks. After that, they backed out of it," OW Bunker's chairman, Niels Henrik Jensen, is quoted as saying by ShippingWatch.

ShippingWatch also cites Jensen as explaining that "a teary-eyed manager... told all about the systematic fraud that had been taking place at the Singapore unit for the past six months."

"We don't know why he came to us and told us about the matters, and we cannot go into details about the events because police investigations are ongoing," Jensen added.

A number of members of staff at Dynamic Oil Trading are alleged to have been involved in fraudulent activities. So far, one or more people in Singapore and one person in Denmark are said to be involved in the investigation.