Quote:
Originally Posted by saab2000
As mentioned above, it’ll be hard to hold anyone truly accountable because of the tentacles of ownership and operations being tangled and deliberately opaque.
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This is not true. The ownership only appears opaque but you can always get to the UBO. Someone is always holding the bag, it just takes time and legal fees as you often need to get a disclosure order from courts to get the documents. Those documents often lead to another company where you repeat the process. But eventually, you get to the end. It can take a few years and a few million dollars in legal fees. ACRA is the insurance agent here, and they have an obligation to know the UBO of Grace Ocean. Grace Ocean will have an obligation to know the UBO of Synergy Marine Group and finally for Synergy Marine Group, Maersk is a listed company and through material adverse disclosure rules, they will have to discuss the accident and which entity of theirs is involved to equity and bond holders.. There should also be about 4+ types of insurance for this. Insurance for the hulls and machinery, insurance for the crew, insurance for cargo, and charter liability insurance. Maersk may also have a separate catastrophe policy. Lots of policies here. This is big money and people do not risk big money. Since Maersk is involved, I would be shocked if everything is not spelled out in the charter contract.
The opaqueness just prevents noisy reporters from reporting, but for those with real skin in the game, they know.
update- Grace Ocean if a subsidiary of the Japanese trading company Mitsu & Co. Insurance is Britannia Protection and Indemnity Club. They in turn have a reinsurance policy with AXA XL which thru a few layers can max out at $2.1 billion. The key now will be determining liability to see who bears the insurance cost. Some of this could be Port of Baltimore with their Harbor Pilots onboard. But both Mitsui and Maersk have deep pockets on top of this.
This was a New Panamax container ship. There is no rinky dink here.