After the tanker Brilliante virtuoso with 100,000 tons of Ukrainian crude oil on its way to China was attacked and incapacitated off the coast of Yemen on July 5, 2011, unanswered questions piled up. By about one third of the way through this true crime murder mystery, most readers will begin to suspect that it was an inside job with some crew member(s) with criminal connections intimately involved.
The two Bloomberg BusinessWeek investigative reporters relate a tale of international intrigue and crime more complex than most spy novelists could dream up. This includes at least one murder, that of a British businessman working in Aden. The complex inner workings of stodgy Lloyds of London is exposed in a far from flattering way. Contrary to conventional characterization, Lloyds does not sell insurance but simply facilitates sales for a myriad of other ‘underwriters’. Corrupt lawyers, accountants and bankers, shell companies that conceal true ownership, fraud, conspiracies, tax evasion, and international criminal gangs were all involved in the carefully planned fate of the tanker, disguised to look like a pirate hijacking gone wrong, and it was almost certainly not the first planned maritime insurance fraud. The Greek oligarchs that are ultimate owners of much the modern cargo fleets, often registered in tax havens, are depicted as a cabal of amoral greedy thugs, although the authors do not state anything negative about the late Aristotle Onassis.
The most depressing conclusion for me from reading this tale is the suggestion that in the rarified realms of international shipping, banking, and insurance, crime pays big dividends and is seldom punished, and justice seldom prevails. The world isn’t fair and one should not expect it to be. Perhaps the fate of Hong Kong’s famous Jumbo Floating Restaurant which was losing money, is the latest attempt at marine insurance fraud.
The writing is straightforward and logical with easily understood time lines, although it takes careful reading to keep the names and roles of the many international players straight. This book will not suit many reader’s tastes but is enlightening and I quite enjoyed it.
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Thanks, The Economist.
The Passionate Reader 