2½ years’ jail for man wanted by FBI for facilitating oil supply to North Korea

SINGAPORE – Despite knowing that it was illegal to supply petroleum products to North Korea, which was under United Nations Security Council sanctions, a man helped to indirectly supply more than 12,000 tonnes of gas oil to the regime.

His actions in 2019 led to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation offering a US$5 million bounty to anyone with information on him in 2021.

In total, Kwek Kee Seng, a Singaporean, indirectly helped to provide some US$6.9 million worth of gas oil to Pyongyang.

He had helped to buy or charter vessels on behalf of Taiwanese parties, sourced the supplier of oil, and tabulated the amount of product being supplied.

On April 7, 2026, Kwek, 66, was sentenced to 30 months’ jail and fined $80,000 after pleading guilty to three counts of flouting UN sanctions, one count for receiving the criminal benefits, and another for obstructing the course of justice. Twelve other charges of a similar nature were taken into account.

The court heard that Kwek had engaged in a conspiracy with several Taiwanese to arrange for the illegal sale of gas oil into North Korea.

On seven occasions between September and November 2019, Kwek helped to broker the purchase of a vessel, assisted in chartering another vessel, and oversaw the ship-to-ship transfers between all involved parties. He did all these remotely.

The prosecution said Kwek had played a key role in the entire scheme as he helped to communicate instructions from the Taiwanese parties to the captains of the vessels, and also remotely reviewed reports prepared by the ship captains when oil was being loaded onto the vessels.

He had used his own companies to facilitate the network. Kwek, who is the sole director of Swanseas Port Services and Anfasar Trading, would use Swanseas to charter vessels for the Taiwanese parties to use and to facilitate the payment of charter fees for another vessel, where Swanseas would receive monies from the Taiwanese parties.

In all, Swanseas was used to receive nearly US$390,000, out of which Kwek retained US$58,600 as payment for his services as a maritime consultant to the Taiwanese.

He also used Anfasar to transfer monies he had received from the Taiwanese to ISA Energy, the firm of a co-accused, Justin Low.

Between July and September 2019, Anfasar received more than $2.5 million from shell companies operated by Kwek’s Taiwanese accomplices.

That entire amount was then transferred to Low and ISA Energy as they were the suppliers of the gas oil.

Court documents show that on March 21, 2025, Low was sentenced to 12 months and three weeks’ jail and fined $280,000 for his role in the scheme.

Investigations also found that Kwek had communicated with the Taiwanese parties through WhatsApp on his mobile phone.

After the FBI placed a bounty on him in April 2021, Kwek handed over the phone to his Taiwanese accomplices as he believed he would get into trouble if it fell into the FBI’s hands.

Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan said Kwek had known that the gas oil would be intended for North Korea from the start. Kwek had also been in the middle of the entire scheme, through his connections with the Taiwanese accomplices, his companies Swanseas and Anfasar, and Low and ISA Energy.

“(Kwek’s) role was significant even though he was not the mastermind. Specifically, he coordinated between multiple parties, maintained detailed records and served as a connector who linked all the parties together,” said the judge.

In his defence, Kwek’s lawyer, Mr Gregory Ong, said that Kwek had lower culpability than Low as he acted only as an intermediary.

“He took instructions substantially from the Taiwanese party. He did not make any profits directly from the sale, supply and transfer of gas oil. He just received criminal benefits,” said Mr Ong.

The prosecution argued that Kwek was a key operative in the entire scheme as he had helped to connect all the parties involved.

“Really, the significant degree of organisation including the roping in of Justin Low as the supplier shows that Kwek has played a bigger role as a coordinator than he is trying to let on,” said the prosecution.

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