Suspended CAO chief, four others charged in
Singapore
SINGAPORE : Suspended China Aviation Oil chief Chen Jiulin and four
other top officials have been formally charged with offences
ranging from making false declarations to insider trading, arising
from an oil trading scandal.
The charges come a day after creditors voted overwhelmingly in
favour of a bailout plan to revive the firm.
The company shocked markets late last year by revealing it had lost
more than US$500 million by placing bets on the future price of
oil.
The serious charges against the five tell a story of fraud,
cheating, forging documents and not informing authorities of the
huge losses being chalked up.
Three of them, non-executive directors from China Aviation Oil,
were released on bail ranging from S$120,000 to S$250,000.
CAO chairman Jia Changbin, faces three charges, including one of
insider trading.
Gu Yanfei, head of CAO's debt restructuring team, and Li Yongji,
member of CAO's audit committee, face two counts each of
dishonesty.
But the most serious charges were levelled against suspended CEO
Chen, who is in custody.
He has been slapped with 15 charges, among others, for making false
declarations, cheating, forgery and insider trading.
He faces up to seven years of prison on each of 13 offences, and
one to two years on the last two.
Bail has been set at S$2 million.
The only Singaporean among the five accused, Peter Lim, CAO's head
of finance, faces five charges of cheating and fraud.
All five have to report to the Commercial Affairs Department from
Monday to Friday to register their presence.
One side issue that cropped up during the proceedings was that
three of China Aviation Oil's non-executive directors applied to
leave the country.
Their lawyers argued, among other things, that they needed to
travel to settle issues related to the bailout plan.
Only one, Gu Yanfei, was allowed to do so, under strict
conditions.
She will be flying to the US to deal with a class action lawsuit on
this matter as well.
Chen and Lim will appear in court again next Friday; the others on
June 23. CNA /ct