Korea’s LG Chem says it was duped over $21MM payment for naphtha
5/2/2016 12:00:00 AM
SEOUL/SINGAPORE, May 2 (Reuters) -- South Korea's biggest chemical company, LG Chem, said it had sought help from authorities retrieving $21 million that it believed had been paid into a fake bank account to purchase a refined oil product.
Song Choong-seop, a spokesman for LG Chem, said the money had been supposed to go to its supplier, Saudi Arabia's Aramco Trading, to pay for naphtha, a feedstock used to make plastics and other petrochemical products.
"We have requested an investigation by prosecutors," said Song.
The naphtha had been delivered to LG Chem in the second half of March, according to Song.
The Seoul prosecutors' office could not immediately be reached for comment.
A spokesman for Saudi Aramco said the company did not comment on its customers' business.
Last October, Saudi Aramco had said that an attempted fraud that targeted its trading unit and India state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp. had been foiled.
(Reporting by Rebecca Jang in SEOUL and Seng Li Peng in SINGAPORE; Additonal reporting by Reem Shamseddine in KHOBAR; Editing by Ed Davies)
Comments