SINGAPORE- Three former employees of Mitsui & Co's now-shut Singapore oil trading arm were charged in Singapore on Tuesday, their lawyers said.
Mitsui & Co, Japan's second-biggest trading house, shut Mitsui Oil Asia (MOA) after the Singapore office raked up $81 million in naphtha trading-related losses as of November 17, 2006.
Noriyuki Yamazaki, 37, former naphtha trader for MOA, was charged with falsification of documents, his lawyer Sant Singh of Tan Rajah & Cheah said.
Wada Takayoshi, 46, the former general manager for trading, was charged with abetting Yamazaki in a conspiracy to falsify documents, said Lee Teck Leng of Lee Associates Advocates & Solicitors.
Takahashi Masatsugu, 51, then executive vice president, faces 130 charges of falsifying accounting documents related to naphtha mark-to-market profit and loss figures, said Thong Chee Kun of Rajah & Tann.
Both Takayoshi and Masatsugu still work for Mitsui & Co, their lawyers said.
Yamazaki, who was hired as a senior broker with Singapore-based oil brokerage Ginga Petroleum in April this year, was arrested two days after Mitsui & Co reported the matter to Singapore's white-collar police on February 12 last year, and was then released on bail.
The company said last February that the losses in trading of naphtha, a light oil product used as a petrochemical feedstock, had been "deceptively concealed" and said it had filed the results of its own investigation with Singapore's Commercial Affairs Department (CAD).
The lawyers for the three that have been charged said they could not comment on the allegations because the matter was now before the court.
The three will be back in court on November 18.
Mitsui & Co, Japan's second-biggest trading house, shut Mitsui Oil Asia (MOA) after the Singapore office raked up $81 million in naphtha trading-related losses as of November 17, 2006.
Noriyuki Yamazaki, 37, former naphtha trader for MOA, was charged with falsification of documents, his lawyer Sant Singh of Tan Rajah & Cheah said.
Wada Takayoshi, 46, the former general manager for trading, was charged with abetting Yamazaki in a conspiracy to falsify documents, said Lee Teck Leng of Lee Associates Advocates & Solicitors.
Takahashi Masatsugu, 51, then executive vice president, faces 130 charges of falsifying accounting documents related to naphtha mark-to-market profit and loss figures, said Thong Chee Kun of Rajah & Tann.
Both Takayoshi and Masatsugu still work for Mitsui & Co, their lawyers said.
Yamazaki, who was hired as a senior broker with Singapore-based oil brokerage Ginga Petroleum in April this year, was arrested two days after Mitsui & Co reported the matter to Singapore's white-collar police on February 12 last year, and was then released on bail.
The company said last February that the losses in trading of naphtha, a light oil product used as a petrochemical feedstock, had been "deceptively concealed" and said it had filed the results of its own investigation with Singapore's Commercial Affairs Department (CAD).
The lawyers for the three that have been charged said they could not comment on the allegations because the matter was now before the court.
The three will be back in court on November 18.
