Chinese independent refiner Baota Petrochemical Group has announced that its chairman and controlling shareholder Sun Hengchao has been arrested by authorities for alleged criminal charges.
The details of the criminal charges remain unknown.
In July, Baota Petrochemical announced a plan to form a tanker fleet by bareboat chartering up to 60 tankers from a number of major tanker operators including Maersk Tankers, Hafnia Tankers, Scorpio Tankers, Valt and Golden Energy Management. Baota had also signed an agreement with Singapore’s Mare Maritime to form a strategic partnership for ship chartering. The deal was signed by Sun and Rohit Kapur, CEO of Mare Maritime.
When contacted by Splash, an official at Baota said Sun has authorised three senior managers at the group to temporarily take over the executive power of the chairman and the company is operating normally.
Sun controls 43.7% equity in Baota and he was once the richest man in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.
