Trader Gunvor Pursued by China for Allegedly Evading Tariffs

  • Gunvor ordered by Chinese court to pay government $54 million
  • Oil trader says it wasn’t party to Chinese court proceedings
Photographer: Jasper Juinen/Bloomberg
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Gunvor Group Ltd., one of the world’s largest energy traders, was ordered to pay the Chinese government $54 million for import tariffs it allegedly evaded by smuggling oil into the country.

Illegal income of 378 million yuan ($54 million) must be confiscated from Gunvor’s Singapore unit and transferred to the Chinese treasury, according to a Guangzhou court ruling dated Sept. 26 and seen by Bloomberg News. That ruling came at the end of a case against Dikun Yin, a former Singapore-based managing director at Gunvor, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison for his role in allegedly evading Chinese tariffs on oil imports.