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Orlen doing all it can to recover money paid for oil it didn't get

Poland's biggest refiner Orlen is taking every possible step to recuperate money paid by its Swiss trading unit in prepayments for oil that was not provided, however this might be very made complex, the company's. CEO said on Thursday.

District attorneys in Poland are examining the loss of about. $ 400 million by Orlen Trading Switzerland (OTS) in prepayments,. primarily for Venezuelan oil, in what has actually become a politically. charged story in Warsaw.

The truth that a business such as Orlen, one of the largest. companies in Europe ... one of the largest refining issues in. the world ... made prepayments for items that were supposed to. reach the business is a scandal, Ireneusz Fafara stated.

A business of the size and reputation of Orlen would. normally utilize letters of credit to trade instead of advance. payments. The payments in question were made without security. to entities with which Orlen had actually never worked together in the past, the. company said on April 11.

The Swiss unit of state-controlled Orlen concurred in 2015 to. buy numerous oil freights from Venezuela throughout a short-term. softening by Washington of sanctions on the nation, and sent out. supertankers to select them up.

However Orlen stated in April it had scrapped the agreements after. the tankers failed to fill for months and as a U.S. licence. temporarily permitting oil exports from Venezuela was set to. expire in mid-April.

We are doing everything possible, using the very best. professionals on the planet, the best law practice on the planet, to. recover this money, Fafara told press reporters.

If you ask me how we see a chance of getting them back, I. will state that I do not know. But it will certainly be a very,. very difficult task.

Fafara took control of Orlen in February after the new federal government. pledged to purge state-controlled business of people it. considers political nominees of the previous administration.

The company is now evaluating its company structure and. financial investments with a view to possibly divest a few of the non. core possessions including a press publishing company acquired under. the previous management, the CEO said.

I do not know why we should handle publishing press, we. intend to resolve this in the technique. We likewise wish to streamline. the company as much as possible..