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The Senior Managing Director of Ernst & Young (EY) affiliate EY Turnaround Management Services claims that Aegean Marine Petroleum Network Inc does not have a centralized accounting system.

Explaining the bunker company's accounting set-up to the US Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York, Andrew Hede noted that EY has been acting as a restructuring advisor to Aegean and certain of its direct and indirect subsidiaries since April 2018.

And as a person that is "generally familiar with the Debtors' day-to-day operations, business and financial affairs", Hede observed that, based on the work performed by EY, "it is my understanding that there is no centralized accounting system to consolidate financial information on a daily basis".

Hede explained that Aegean has key personnel at various offices and stations around the world to assist with its financial reporting obligations, but that "this lack of a centralized accounting system makes financial reporting and financial planning difficult".

Accounting issues with NYSE

As previously reported, Aegean is still yet to file its annual report for 2017 with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). On November 2, the company explained that an additional extension past the due date "has not yet been granted" by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).

Issues with control over electronic data

In addition to Aegean's aforementioned "difficult" accounting system set-up, the marine fuel seller has also previously declared that it has encountered problems accessing key electronic data.

According to Aegean, an unnamed former affiliate continues to have access to and control over the company's electronic and physical files, and efforts to obtain access to relevant emails and other electronic data stored on the company's server in Greece "were and continue to be obstructed as a result of, among other things, the threats of retaliation against Company personnel, and at least one attempt to delete and permanently erase documents from the Company's server through the remote installation of data deletion software by a person with administrator access".

Interim order

Aegean filed for bankruptcy on November 6 after claiming that up to $300m of company cash and other assets were misappropriated, and alleging that UAE-based OilTank, controlled by a 'former affiliate', received funds through inflated contracts and fraudulent pricing.

Shareholder Mercuria's offer of more than $532m in post-petition financing to fund the Chapter 11 process and the company's working capital needs was granted on an interim basis at a hearing on November 8.

Aegean was also authorized in an interim order to pay pre-petition wages, salaries, compensation and reimbursable expenses, and continue employee benefits programs. Additionally, it was given the go-ahead to operate its cash management system, maintain existing bank accounts and continue to perform intercompany transactions.

Furthermore, Aegean was authorized, on a provisional basis, to pay foreign claims up to $3m; lien claims up to $4.3m; 503(b) claims up to $11.1m; and HSE and other claims in the ordinary course of business.