Lebanese Company Exploits Sonatrach Interface To Import Oils

Initial investigations in the Mount Lebanon Court revealed new facts in the case of the “fraudulent fuel oil” that the Algerian Sonatrach company is merely a front for “Zr” Energy Company to its owner “B.B”, in addition to the involvement of several senior employees in Lebanon in taking bribes to tamper in the results of laboratories and fraud in the bills of lading to hide the actual importers in the file.

Lebanese reports said Thursday that the first investigating judge in Mount Lebanon Court expanded the investigation of the file by interrogating three detainees in the “Fuel Oil Fraud” scandal, where the detainees acknowledged that they were taking bribes from a representative of the company “ZR energy and for this reason the investigative judge issued a valid note against them.

Judge Mansour issued a letter of attorney to complete the procedures abroad, and he also ordered that the investigation of the case must be expanded to include the stage before contracting with “ZR” company to verify the suspicion of receiving bribes that were paid and who was paying them and the list of the real persons involved in the file from inside and outside Lebanon.

These measures come after the Appeal of the Public Prosecutor in Mount Lebanon Court “A.Gh” which accused 21 people in the file of “fraudulent fuel oil” after the complaint submitted by the lawyer, where she requested the issuance of four arrest warrants in absentia against the director of the oil facilities “S.H” Representative of ZR company “Teddy.R”, the company manager “I.Z” and another employee.

She also issued 14 face-to-face arrest warrants against 14 employees, and, according to the same sources, the judge accused the Director-General of fuel “A.F” and an employee in the laboratories of the “Z” establishments, on charges related to crimes of forgery and the use of counterfeit, bribe-taking, money laundering, fraud and exploitation of influence.

The sources pointed added that the investigation revealed critical documents, contradicting the “fake” information that claimed and deluded public opinion that Sonatrach is the actual importer of the fuel oil, and it was revealed, according to the accused “T.F”, that Sonatrach is a front for the company “BBI” to the owner “B.B” and the company “ZR energy”, as it was found through the signed contract that it holds in its clauses the state responsibility at the moment of loading the shipment from outside Lebanon, meaning that the importer can manipulate the quality at sea.