Lawyers representing Dynamic Oil Trading (Singapore) Pte Ltd (in creditors’ voluntary liquidation and receivership) (DOT) and Deloitte & Touche LLP (Deloitte) were scheduled to be present at the General Division of The High Court of the Republic of Singapore on 11 April 2023.

DOT was looking to claim USD 103 million from Deloitte, which was engaged to perform audit of DOT’s financial statements ending 31 December 2013, due to alleged negligence, according to the Statement of Claim (dated January 2020) obtained by bunkering publication Manifold Times.

Background of KMPG involvement

KPMG Services Pte. Ltd. (KPMG) was appointed as joint and several provisional liquidators of DOT on 18 November 2014 and appointed as joint and several liquidators of DOT on 13 February 2015.

Prior to the development, Deloitte issued a “clean, unqualified opinion” for DOT’s financial year ended 31 December 2013 on 31 March 2014 in its Audit Report and did not raise any issues or concerns regarding DOT’s financial statements, highlighted KPMG in the Statement of Claim.

As such, DOT was unaware of misconduct by any of its senior management, officers, employees, and agents for its financial year ending 31 December 2013. 

“Based on this, DOT had, at all material times, been led to believe Deloitte did meet its audit obligations in respect of DOT for the 2013 Audit,” stated KPMG.

Issues between DOT, Petrotec and Tankoil

Petrotec Pte. Ltd. (Petrotec) was DOT’s primary trading partner from October 2012 to March 2013 and Tankoil Marine Services Pte Ltd (Tankoil) was its primary trading partner from March 2013 to early November 2014; both firms were collectively involved in approximately 85% of DOT’s business in 2013.

Tankoil was gradually wound up by DOT and ING Bank N.V. on 31 July 2015 and DOT has not been able to recover the overdue net balance of Tankoil’s liability to DOT amounting to approximately USD 156.3 million as of 18 November 2014 (the date when DOT entered into provisional liquidation).

KPMG, amongst discoveries, found a delay in the booking of invoices raised by DOT to Tankoil in DOT’s financial management systems giving rise to a misleading picture of DOT’s credit exposure in relation to Tankoil.

“Deloitte failed to carry out the necessary inquiries and investigations which would have led it to uncover the nonbooking or delayed booking of DOT’s invoices to Tankoil, which in turn would have enabled Deloitte to form the view that DOT did not keep proper accounting or other records and/or that its financial statements were not consistent or supported by DOT’s accounting or other records,” it stated.

When DOT entered provisional liquidation on 18 November 2014, DOT’s trade receivables amounted to approximately USD 330.5 million, of which approximately USD 222.9 million was due from Tankoil – where the gross balance due from Tankoil amounted to almost 70% of DOT’s total trade receivables.

“DOT’s trade receivables from Tankoil kept increasing in the course of 2013. This should have alerted Deloitte to make further inquiries and/or request further audit evidence as to how DOT was managing these trade receivables and why these trade receivables were not being collected,” said KPMG.

“Deloitte failed to raise issues or concerns with DOT with respect to the stated trade receivables and issued a clean, unqualified opinion.”

According to KPMG, a general trading pattern existed between Tankoil and DOT where Tankoil consistently charged DOT a unit price for bunker oil less than the unit price DOT charged Tankoil for bunker oil; essentially making a loss within this trading arrangement.

KMPG auditors further noted Lars Møller, the former managing director and finance manager of DOT, being charged with aggravated criminal breach of trust under the Danish Criminal Code on 12 July 2017 and convicted of the same on 30 May 2018 by the Court of Aalborg in Denmark. His conviction was enhanced by the 1st Division of the Danish Western High Court on 14 June 2019 to that of fraudulent abuse of a particularly gross nature.

“Had DOT been aware of its true financial position and/or the weaknesses in the design or operation of the accounting and internal control system, the full extent of the impairment of receivables due from Tankoil and/or the unlawful actions by Lars and/or any other officer, employee or agent of DOT would have been discovered earlier and in any event before November 2014 (when the OWB Group collapsed globally) or any earlier date on which DOT knew the extent of impairment of receivables and/or DOT would not have carried on trading with Tankoil and/or DOT’s shareholders would have placed DOT in liquidation earlier and would have avoided incurring further substantial amounts of unpaid receivables,” stated KPMG in the legal document.

KPMG auditors estimated DOT incurred a loss of approximately USD 103 million, being the difference between:

• Approximately USD 127 million, being DOT’s net liabilities (excluding irrecoverable Tankoil balances) as at the date of liquidation on 18 November 2014; and
• Approximately USD 24 million, being DOT’s net liabilities (excluding irrecoverable Tankoil balances) as at 31 December 2013 as stated in reflected in the audited accounts dated 31 March 2014.

In November 2018, Deloitte was the subject of investigations led by the Danish Business Authority regarding “significant deficiencies in the work performed” in the auditor’s statements of the O.W. Bunker group.

Stakeholders of the defunct bunkering firm O.W. Bunker A/S (currently in insolvency proceedings) launched a similar claim against Deloitte for damages over “breach(es) of their contractual obligation(s) and/or dut(ies) in their audit of the financial statements of Dynamic Oil Trading (Singapore) Pte Ltd (now in creditors’ voluntary liquidation and receivership), thereby resulting in the Plaintiffs suffering loss and damage.”

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Photo credit: Manifold Times
Published: 25 April, 2023