COPENHAGEN: A Danish national and former executive employee of OW Bunker is wanted for fraud by Italian authorities and may also be involved in a case that embroils members of the Italian navy.
The Danish fraud squad has arrested a former executive of bankrupt ship fuel supplier OW Bunker who is under suspicion of fraud from Italian authorities.
“The arrestee is suspected by the Italian authorities of having participated in fraud and embezzlement. From the Danish side, we are naturally also very aware of the role the individual could have had in connection to the quite extensive set of cases that we are currently investigating along with the liquidators of the OW Bunker estate,” Morten Niels Jakobsen, the public prosecutor for economic and international criminality (Særlig Økonomisk og International Kriminalitet – SØIK), said in a press release.
According to SØIK, the individual will be extradited to Italy. Italian media has reported that another high-ranking OW Bunker executive has been charged with fraud for a bogus sale of over 50 million kroner worth of oil to the Italian navy.
According to the reports, three Italian navy officers signed off on the purchase despite the fact that the ship that was said to have delivered the massive oil shipment has been sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean for over a year.
Danish broadcaster DR reported that it was currently unclear if both cases involve the same OW Bunker official.
OW Bunker filed for bankruptcy in November after saying it had discovered a $125 million (100 million euros) fraud at its subsidiary in Singapore.
The company was valued at 5.33 billion kroner (716 million euros, $890 million) in May in what has been Denmark’s second biggest IPO in the year to date.
