08-07-2025
Luxury cars, safe full of cash: 25-year jail term in Singapore for Shell fuel heist mastermind who led S$100m syndicate
SINGAPORE, July 8 — A former Shell employee who masterminded a sophisticated S$100 million (RM331.6 million) marine gas oil heist from the company's Pulau Bukom facility in Singapore was sentenced yesterday to 25 years and two months in jail.
The Straits Times reported that Abdul Latif Ibrahim, 67, pleaded guilty to 20 counts of criminal breach of trust and 10 counts of money laundering. Another 34 charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
The High Court heard that Latif had led a team of rogue employees in siphoning gas oil from Shell between August 2014 and January 2018, which was then sold to local and foreign ships.
The long-running scheme is considered part of the largest marine fuel heist in Singapore's history. Latif's co-mastermind, Juandi Pungot, was sentenced to 29 years' jail in 2022.
According to the facts of the case, Latif, who drew a monthly salary of S$3,700, amassed at least S$7 million in illicit profits.
He spent the money on a Braddell Road condominium in Singapore, two properties in Indonesia, several luxury cars — including a Mercedes-Benz E63 AMG S sedan — and financed his nephews' education in Australia. He also invested in various businesses.
Nearly S$7.7 million worth of assets have since been seized, including S$4.7 million in cash found in a safe that was moved around various locations.
Latif and Juandi had started misappropriating fuel in 2007 while working in the same team. Their initial operation involved routing stolen oil onto bunker ships through a middleman.
In 2013, Latif had a falling-out with Juandi's group and left. He later rejoined Shell on a different team under a re-employment scheme and began building a separate syndicate.
He recruited Richard Goh Chee Keong to help plan the illegal loadings, who then brought in Ng Chee Seng.
After Ng quit, Mohd Ibrahim K. Abdul Majid joined the group in May 2015.
Latif's network continued its operations until both masterminds were arrested in 2018.
Their methods were elaborate. The team rerouted fuel through pipelines to bypass meters, activated pumps simultaneously to mask anomalies, and tampered with equipment to prevent detection. They paid bribes to bunker surveyors and encouraged uninvolved staff to take extended breaks to avoid scrutiny.
Shell began noticing unexplained oil losses in early 2015 and filed a police report in August 2017.
Investigations revealed that Juandi's team had stolen over 203,000 tonnes of fuel worth nearly S$128 million. Latif's group misappropriated nearly 154,000 tonnes valued at about S$100 million.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ben Tan recommended a sentence of 25 to 27 years, arguing that Latif's culpability mirrored Juandi's.
Defence lawyer Justin Ng argued for a 22-year term, citing the smaller scale of Latif's operations and his client's willingness to forfeit his assets.
Latif was granted a deferment of sentence until September 30.
The cases of Goh and Ibrahim are still before the courts.
Other syndicate members have received jail terms ranging from one year and four months to 26-and-a-half years.
