The shady bidders...

***One company registered in Lagos remains inactive according to the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission

***Directors of Petrichor Capital named defendants in $4.6 million US fraud case

*** Vitol group repeatedly blacklisted for supplying substandard fuel to Sri Lanka

The Daily Mirror conducted a research on the six companies who had submitted Expressions of Interest over the proposed new refinery in Hambantota, other than Sinopec, and found shocking revelations with one company also being listed as ‘inactive’. Following are the results from the research.

Grant & Shearer

Grant & Shearer Ltd of Nigeria has been listed as a commodity trading company, classified as a private company limited by shares. Incorporated in 1992, the company is currently listed with the Nigerian Corporate Affairs Commission as inactive. The company’s last registered address in 2009 with the Commission, currently shows a slum area in Lagos, Nigeria when searched on Google Street view. Grant & Shearer’s business registration number has also been linked with another business entity named ABDUL RAZAK ENT which is also inactive.

Petrichor Capital Sdn Bhd

Petrichor Capital Sdn Bhd, registered in 2017 lists its principal place of business in Malaysia with an office in the United Kingdom. The company's directors were named as defendants in a court case filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York in 2021.

A leading importer of food service and safety equipment in the US alleged that the Petrichor defendants jointly engaged in a fraudulent scheme to defraud the US company over $4.6 million.

The agreement, according to court documents, was made during the height of COVID-19 pandemic when personal protective equipment (PPE) was in short supply. Petrichor defendants were involved in a deal where the company was allegedly paid to supply nitrile protective gloves but failed to deliver the procurement.

The Vitol Group

The Vitol Group is an energy and commodities company, also recognized as the world's largest independent oil trader. Vitol offers crude oil and product trading, shipping, refining, terminals and investments services, with its largest offices based in Geneva, Houston, London and Singapore.

However, the Singapore-based Vitol Asia Pte Ltd, which has been awarded contracts for the import of diesel and petrol in Sri Lanka has been blacklisted several times.

The company was first blacklisted in 2009, for supplying a stock of High Sulphur Fuel Oil mixed with waste lubricants. Vitol later paid $ 150,000 to the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation in 2011. In 2012 Vitol was once again blacklisted on the endorsement of then Petroleum Industries Minister Susil Premajayantha, following hundreds of complaints by motorists.

Most recently Vitol Group agreed to pay $95.7 million to resolve bribery charges with law enforcement authorities in the United States and Brazil in 2020. Vitol did not admit nor deny the charges of corruption-based fraud and attempted market manipulation, but agreed to the payout related to bribery and offering kickbacks to employees of certain state-owned entities in Brazil, Ecuador and Mexico in exchange for “preferential treatment and access to trades," according to the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Other contenders

Harree Management Services (Pvt) Ltd is listed as an accounts management company, which is partnering with Abu Dhabi based Marka Invest. Marka Invest is a company which specializes in real estate development, although the company profile lists itself as a brokerage firm dealing in investment, general trading and oil products.

No business information exists on Matin Tejarat in several business registries. The company's website indicates that it is a trade company primarily dealing with the imports of food, polymer, cosmetics, pharma and feed raw materials, based in Iran.

Dandeniya Engineering Sales and Service Syndicate, the only Sri Lankan company to submit an EOI, also does not have publicly listed information. (Kalani Kumarasinghe)