Sembcorp Marine files police report with CAD after Brazil unit scandal

Following a suspicious transaction allegedly involving the former president of its Brazilian unit, Sembcorp Marine (SembMarine) lodged a report with the Singapore Police Force’s Commercial Affairs Department (CAD).
The Edge Singapore reported that while Martin Cheah Kok Choon, who is formerly the president of Estaleiro Jurong Aracruz (EJA) until Jun 2015 when his employment was terminated, was purportedly involved in the suspicious transaction reported by SembMarine, the company said in an exchange filing that it is “not aware that any director or management of the company is a subject of the investigations being conducted by the Brazilian authorities”.
Brazilian authorities charged EJA’s former consultant Guilherme Esteves de Jesus last Feb over his alleged involvement in illegal payments connected to drillship contracts that were secured by SembMarine units, in what became part of Operation Car Wash, the Latin American nation’s biggest anti-graft crackdown.
SembMarine was awarded US$5.5 billion worth of contracts from Petrobras’ rig-owning unit Sete Brasil.
Previously, SembMarine received a five-year subordinated loan of S$2 billion from Sembcorp Industries via DBS Bank by the end of Jul to relieve the subsidiary company of its loans, which amount to S$1.5 billion, The Business Times reported last month.
Temasek Holdings, according to BT, has been named as one of the investors in the bonds. The remaining S$500 million out of the loan will be sourced from Sembcorp’s existing resources and facilities.