Danish court issues bunkering company fines and suspended sentence for Syria trades
A Danish court has fined two related bunkering companies, and issued a suspended prison sentence to a company director, for having delivered approximately 170,000 tonnes of jet fuel for use in Syria in breach of EU sanctions.
The companies involved were Dan-Bunkering and Bunker Holding, referred to in a summary of the case issued by the Odense city court as ‘T1’ and ‘T2’ respectively, and the individual, Keld Demant, referred to as ‘T3’.
The case summary said the criminal case was about ‘whether the company T1…in violation of [the EU Syria sanctions] had by a total of 33 trades in the period from October 2015 to May 2017… intentionally or in the alternative negligently supplied jet fuel for use in Syria, where a civil war was raging during the period.’
It said that company T2, the parent company of T1, and a person, T3, chairman of the board of T1 and CEO of T2, were charged ‘with intentional or subsidiary negligent participation in the last 8 trades in jet fuel that took place in the period from February to May 2017.’
In all 33 transactions, it said, T1 had sold jet fuel to two Russian companies, both of which were general agents for the Russian navy.
According to the court’s summary, ‘Trade documents, mails, unloading documents and AIS data proved that the Russian companies, after receiving the jet fuel from T1, had delivered the jet fuel in the Syrian port of Port Banias, after which the jet fuel had been used by the Russian air force for military operations in Syria. The Court found that the deliveries objectively constituted infringements of EU sanctions.’
By the court’s ruling, T1 has been fined DKK 30 million (approx. US$ 4.5 million), T2 has been fined DKK 4 million, while T3 received a suspended sentence of four months’ imprisonment.
In a statement issued shortly after the ruling, Dan-Bunkering said,
‘’[The] court has found that the employees of Dan-Bunkering’s Russian office in Kaliningrad, who executed the trades, ought to have known that there was a possibility that Dan-Bunkering’s Russian client was going to use the fuel in violation of EU sanctions. The court, on the other hand, found no evidence that neither Bunker Holding nor its CEO deliberately acted in violation of EU sanctions, but rather acted with unintentional negligence in relation to the smaller number of trades completed in the spring of 2017.
‘Dan-Bunkering notes that the fine levied against the company was a tenth of what the prosecutor had called for, just as Bunker Holding’s fine was reduced to 1/20 of the prosecutor’s demand. In addition, Bunker Holding’s CEO was given a significantly reduced sentence compared to the prosecution’s demand.’
The company said it was ‘a very complicated case… reflected in the fact that the judges were not able to reach consensus about the Dan-Bunkering intentions,’ adding, ‘Dan-Bunkering, Bunker Holding, and Bunker Holding’s CEO have from the beginning of the legal process taken the accusations very seriously. Therefore, we will now take the necessary time to consider and evaluate the verdict and the premises of the verdict thoroughly before making any decision of whether to appeal to a higher court.’
(Our reporting based on unofficial translation of court summary.)
