Jail for man who falsified documents, threw computer into sea to cover up gas oil transfer to North Korean vessel

SINGAPORE — A 40-year-old man who falsified information in a bid to cover up Singapore-flagged vessel MT Sea Tanker II's involvement in transferring marine gas oil to a North Korean vessel was sentenced to six months' jail on Monday (June 5) by a district court.

Jeremy Koh Renfeng, who was a former cargo officer of the vessel, pleaded guilty to two charges of intentionally obstructing the course of justice by providing false information in the ship's official log book, and dismantling and disposing of a computer's central processing unit (CPU) into the sea.

An additional similar charge was taken into consideration during sentencing.

His co-conspirators Benny Tan Chun Kiat and Ong Chou Hong were sentenced previously to six and nine months' jail respectively.

FALSE LOGBOOK RECORDS

The court heard that Koh was a cargo officer whose job was to track and record the quantity of marine gas oil on MT Sea Tanker II and supervise the transfer of gas oil from ship to other vessels.

Between Oct 26 and Dec 8, 2018, the Singapore authorities received information that MT Sea Tanker II had allegedly engaged in a transfer of gas oil with North Korean-flagged vessels.

On Nov 5, the Maritime Port Authority (MPA) requested documents from MT Sea Tanker II's owners Sea Hub Tankers, which included the vessel's official log book and oil records.

Sometime between Nov 5 and Dec 6, Ong and Tan told Koh that records in MT Sea Tanker II's official logbook needed to be amended.

Koh was aware that the official logbook would be provided to MPA for its investigation.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) David Koh said that the records in the logbook were amended to create a false narrative about the movement and cargo activity of the vessel.

The trio communicated via WhatsApp regarding the amendment of the books as they were concerned about creating a plausible narrative as to where the tanker was at during relevant points in time.

Ong and Tan created a fake timeline for the movement of the vessel, then instructed Koh to direct the crew of the tanker to write these falsified records into the official logbook. 

Koh had also made amendments to an oil record book.

Koh was then instructed by Ong and Tan to destroy any documents containing Korean words and discard receipts on the ship.

On Nov 16, Koh received instructions from Ong through WhatsApp to check and throw away certain emails and other related documents.

Ong then instructed Koh to destroy the CPU on board MT Sea Tanker II and "throw (it) into (the) sea". Koh did as he was told.

Despite the trio's efforts to conceal their deeds, investigators found incriminating evidence in Koh's mobile phone.

They found deleted images which showed that MT Sea Tanker II had transferred around 2,600 kilolitres of oil to a vessel named "MT An San I" between Oct 30 and 31. 

MT An San I is believed to be a North Korean-flagged vessel.

WHAT THE DEFENCE AND PROSECUTION SAID

In seeking a sentence of six months' jail, DPP Koh told the court that Koh's offences were "invariably serious" and he had been the "hands and feet" of the conspiracy.

He stated that Koh's role was significant as he had conspired with the other two to "frustrate investigations".

Responding in defence of Koh, lawyer Tang Chong Jun from Helmsman LLC argued that his client was merely carrying out "his superior's instructions".

Mr Tang urged Senior District Judge Bala Reddy to impose a lighter sentence of no more than four months' jail as Koh was "just an intermediary" in this conspiracy who had no motivation to commit the offences except to "do his job".

For intentionally obstructing the course of justice, Koh could have been jailed up to seven years or fined, or both.