Fraudulent ship registries fall under the radar 11/08/2018（S&P Global）
This article by John Gallagher originally published on Fairplay.IHS.com.
When the International Maritime Organization's (IMO's) legal committee met for its 105th session in April, the subject of fraudulent ship registrations was a hot topic.
The reason it had been made a priority was because several member states had informed the IMO Secretariat over the last several years that their flags were being flown illegally, beginning with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in 2015.
The fraud was discovered when the DRC was contacted by INTERPOL, requesting authorisation to prosecute two vessels allegedly flying DRC's flag that had been involved in illicit activities.
Following an investigation that revealed that 77 of 84 vessels flying DRC's flag had been registered without the approval of the country's maritime administration, Fiji reported 91 illegally registered ships under its flag in 2017. The Federated States of Micronesia reported 150 ships illegally registered under their flag last year as well.
Although IHS Markit data show that the number of ships that are fraudulently registered has dropped since DRC's assessment three years ago, there are no signs that the problem is going away. In fact, in the five months since the IMO first discussed the problem in depth, at least three more member states have been victimised by a fraudulent ship registry.
"The problem is getting worse," IMO legal affairs director Frederick Kenney told Fairplay.
"When you look at countries like Micronesia, the DRC, and Fiji, and the number of vessels involved, it's alarming from both a safety and security standpoint. We've had ships with a completely fraudulent set of certificates that look real, and if a port state control officer isn't aware that the registry is fraudulent, they may well let the vessel pass. God only knows what safety deficiencies might be on board, or even what those behind the fraudulent registry could be up to."
SEA TRAGEDY | The burnt passenger ferry MV Lady Mary Joy 3 after it was run aground on Baluk-Baluk Island off Basilan province. (Agence France-Presse)
As reported by Fairplay last year, many fraudulent flag registrations - the legality of which can be cross-checked with a ship registry using their official seven-digit IMO number - have tended to be small fishing vessels, small general cargo vessels, or dredgers. Unless they are registered with a recognised flag administrations, their safety and environmental standards cannot be verified.
In addition, "because vessels that are registered under these fraudulent flags tend to be much older vessels, such as single-hull tankers, they're probably not properly inspected," said IHS Markit Maritime & Trade analyst Mark Krzyzak.
Krzyzak, who monitors vessel registrations for verification with the IMO and its member states, also pointed out that federal governments are losing revenue because of the problem.
"Whoever's registering these vessels fraudulently is collecting money through vessel tonnage fees that, if registered legitimately, should be going to the legitimate flag authority, which is usually the government of that country. That's not happening," he said.
According to the IMO, the fraudulent registration of ships "impacts the ability of flag states to meet the objectives of the [IMO's Instruments Implementation] Code as such ships undermine the credibility of the legitimate registry. In cases where the member state has no international registry, fraudulent registries and the fraudulent registration of ships affect the reputation of the member state."
The reputation of Micronesia - which is not an IMO member state - is at high risk of being harmed by fraudulent registries. According to IHS Markit records, Micronesia had about 150 vessels flying the flag in 2017.
"We noticed suddenly a lot of vessels flying the Micronesian flag," Krzyzak said. "It was strange because it is a flag that had very few vessels, and we didn't think they operated an international register - and they don't."
Krzyzak explained that after meeting at the IMO with an official from Micronesia, it was determined that a company was being set up called Micronesian Inter-national Ship & Business Registry, which currently lists several official regional heads in China, India, and Sri Lanka.
"It looks authentic, it works, and it looks good. But it turns out, while there had been talk at one stage of the country operating an international ship registry, it had never been approved."
While Micronesia does flag its own ships, running an international registry is against the country's federal law, and it "doesn't allow vessels to be owned by foreign entities", Krzyzak was told.
The IMO's experience with Micronesia exposed a related practice that seems to be spreading: fraudulent crew certificates issued by illegal companies.
"We've gotten emails from shipmasters and ship-management companies saying that they've got a certificate, but how do we tell if it's real," Kenney said. "If a shipowner has someone with fraudulent certifications operating a large vessel and they're not qualified, the consequences of that are not only a safety and environmental problem, but if there's a spill or an accident, there would be a liability issue as well. It's kind of frightening."
Krzyzak believes there could be "hundreds" of crew members with false certifications, even if they happen to be issued to qualified seafarers. "[Seafarers] thinks they're valid, but wait until they try and go to another company and serve on another vessel. They're going to find their certificates are worthless," Krzyzak said.
In a proposal submitted for discussion at the April legal committee meeting (LEG 105), member states Cyprus, the DRC, Fiji, Germany, Morocco, Spain, and Vanuatu outlined the need for action on the problem.
"As a result of the fraudulent registration of vessels, there are hundreds of ships sailing internationally over which there is no effective control," they stated. "In many cases, the companies operating them provide cover for illicit and illegal activities on board, often related to trade with countries under United Nations sanctions, contribute to maintaining substandard operations in shipping and can put lives of seafarers on board those ships at risk. It is often difficult for states that are victims of the fraud to trace the companies illegally using their flags."
Discussing measures to prevent the fraudulent registration of ships would ensure that legally registered ships receive recognisable nationality from one particular state, they maintained, which allows freedom of navigation and provides a basis for jurisdiction, protection, and intervention.
"This would furthermore ensure that IMO's efforts to induce greater compliance of ships with IMO's international standards regarding safety at sea, pollution prevention, manning and international security requirements are not undermined by fraudulent activities," the LEG proposal stated.
In a summary report following the meeting, IMO delegates acknowledged that the issue of fraudulent ship registries is "quite complex" because it involves public, international law as well as private, regional law.
"A multi-pronged approach would be necessary to effectively address the issue and the solution would involve making accurate information about the status of a nation's registry widely, quickly, and accurately available to shipowners and insurers as well as public officials," said the IMO summary. It was also suggested that effective enforcement measures to discourage the practice, and to prevent ships with fraudulent registration from operating, should be considered.
The legal committee requested the IMO Secretariat conduct a study on fraudulent flag cases that have been received so far, and to assess whether the IMO's Global Integrated Shipping Information System (GISIS) would be able to address the issue.
The GISIS, an IMO database that maintains 43 modules (with 20 open to the public) for tracking incidents involving marine casualties, pollution prevention, and maritime security, could be used to potentially include a list of national bodies authorised to issue certificates so that shipowners would be assured that the flag existed and had been verified and approved by the competent authorities with the IMO.
Member states also agreed that GISIS should be used as a tool to share information and transfer expertise and experience about registers facing fraudulent practices.
"If port state control [PSC] knows in advance that any ship flying the flag of the DRC, for example, is a fraudulent registry, they'd know to detain it right away," Kenney said. "The key is making sure PSC officers have the information they need to recommend detaining a fraudulently registered vessel. Having good information out there is the key to solving the problem."
LEG 105 agreed to include a new output and updates on "measures to prevent unlawful practices associated with the fraudulent registration and registries of ships" in the committee's 2018-19 biennial agenda, with a target completion year of 2021. It also invited concrete proposals to LEG 106 (scheduled to meet 25-29 March 2019) for consideration, and to decide on the scope of the update after considering the proposals.
"We're still awaiting submissions to the legal committee, and my anticipation is that we will begin to have working groups start addressing the problem," Kenney said, noting that the potential outcome could eventually include some kind of legal instrument.
"We'll have to look and see what gets put on the table. There are a lot of possibilities depending on what member states put forward, but something will likely come out of it," he said, suggesting an amendment to a treaty, guidelines, or a legal committee resolution.
While false registrations from Fiji, the DRC, and Micronesia have all dropped precipitously since the issue first gained attention three years ago, over the summer three new IMO member states fell victim to fraudulent registries: Tanzania, Maldives, and the Netherlands, according to IHS Markit data (see chart, below).
SEA TRAGEDY | The burnt passenger ferry MV Lady Mary Joy 3 after it was run aground on Baluk-Baluk Island off Basilan province. (Agence France-Presse)
This concerning trend has member states with registries both large and small taking heed, including International Registries Inc. (IRI), a Reston, Virginia-based company that administers the flag on behalf of the South Pacific island nation of the Marshall Islands.
"It is indeed a safety and a security issue," IRI director of marketing and communications Laura Sherman told Fairplay, underscoring the legal committee's agreement that the fraudulent registration of ships, along with fraudulent schemes to sell fake registration documents from non-existent ship registries, are issues that need to be addressed.
"This practice could also have inadvertent consequences for unknowing seafarers and commercial users as well. The Republic of the Marshall Islands recognises the challenges of the issue, shares the concerns, and is actively part of the remediation plan."
As was emphasised by the seven member-state petitioners to LEG 105, as world trade expands and trade patterns shift, the problems related to maritime fraud become more complex and international. At the same time, they point out, there have already been measures taken up by governments and non-governmental organisations to combat maritime fraud, including exchanging information with the International Maritime Bureau of the International Chamber of Commerce.
The state petitioners warned that "there is still more to be done concerning fraudulent practices and there is a need to consider more efficient preventive measures".
Fake Flags: At-Sea Sanctions Enforcement and Ship Identity Falsification
Fraudulent ship registration makes the already challenge task of sanctions enforcement more difficult.
By Olivia Vassalotti and Cameron Trainer
09/26/18（The Diplomat）
On February 24, 2018, a patrol aircraft of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force found a North Korea-flagged vessel, the Chon Ma San, engaged in what appeared to be a ship-to-ship transfer with another vessel. Such transfers are prohibited under United Nations sanctions on North Korea. Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs published a notice on its website identifying the other vessel as a Maldives-registered tanker, the Xin Yuan 18. There was just one issue: the vessel was never registered by the Maldives.
The identity falsification perpetrated by the Xin Yuan 18 is far from an isolated case. On the contrary, the problem is surprisingly widespread and vastly undertreated. It circumvents the process by which countries regulate the use of their flag for international trade. Some countries allow foreign-owned or controlled vessels to use their flag through an open registry. Others may choose to only register vessels with ties to the country through ownership or crewing. This is termed a closed registry. Still others just choose not to allow the use of their flag for international trade at all. All can be affected by vessel identity falsification.
This falsification can take different forms, from a vessel continuing to claim a country’s flag after being struck from its flag registry, to manipulating the information a ship transmits to broadcast incorrect information, to an unusual and highly concerning phenomenon: the creation of fraudulent national flag registries. Though a range of actors looking to mask illicit trade may exploit these approaches to hide their activity, North Korea is actively making use of all three.
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The first variant is simple for a vessel’s owners and managers to perpetrate. A vessel, after its registration with a country is either terminated or expired, simply continues to use the identification it was once legitimately issued. After Cambodian authorities decided to close their registry, which had been used by North Korean-controlled vessels looking to evade UN sanctions, some of those vessels continued — in violation of national law — to fly the Cambodian flag.
The second method, broadcasting a falsified identity, is also relatively straightforward. All vessels over 300 gross tons are required to have an Automatic Identification System (AIS) transmitting information about their course and identity, including name, flag, and call sign. Vessels engaged in illicit activity often alter these transmissions to reflect either entirely fictional identity information or that of another vessel. All a ship operator needs to do is manually input false information into the ship’s AIS transponder.
One example of this practice is the O Ka San, a vessel listed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO) as being previously flagged to North Korea, but now having an “unknown” country of registration. The ship’s most recent AIS transmission on July 6, 2017, captured by ship-tracking platform MarineTraffic, identified the vessel as the Sarisa, a container ship flagged to Tanzania. According to the official IMO database, the vessel was never known by that name, nor was it ever registered in Tanzania. In fact, no ship named Sarisa exists in the IMO database. The vessel likely altered its AIS transmissions to avoid restrictions on North Korea and its vessels.
The third type of identity falsification – the issuance of fraudulent registration documents to the IMO without the knowledge of the country in question – is significantly more complex and represents a major maritime governance challenge.
In the case of the Xin Yuan 18 described above, for instance, the Maldives Defense Intelligence Service alleges that a Maldives national communicated with the IMO using a Gmail account fraudulently created in the name of a former employee of the Maldives Transport Authority, the body responsible for registering vessels. Using this email, he provided the IMO with fraudulent registration documents for the ship, which appropriated the call sign of a legally registered Maldivian fishing vessel. These documents appear to have been accepted as proof of registration by the IMO, despite not resembling those normally used by the Maldives.
In other cases, companies have posed as national shipping registries, leading to hundreds of vessels claiming the country’s flag without its knowledge or authorization. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Fiji, Micronesia, Nauru, and Samoa have all fallen victim to this kind of fraud despite not authorizing the use of their flag for international trade. In all of these cases, at least one company was created for the sole purpose of operating a fraudulent registry, and the effort was facilitated by authentic-looking websites which at first — and even second — glance appeared to be perfectly legitimate.
Perhaps the most startling is the case of Micronesia. Over 300 vessels may have flown the country’s flag. This was made possible by the IMO erroneously recognizing the fraudulent registry as an official Micronesian entity. In addition, Fiji is investigating 91 reported cases of vessels claiming its flag without authorization, at least 20 of which were linked to North Korea.
It is unclear what proportion of vessel owners were aware of the fraudulent nature of the registrations, but it seems plausible that at least some were unsuspecting victims.
Vessel identity falsification, in whatever form it takes, represents a global maritime safety, security and governance challenge. Fraudulent registries of the kind set up for Micronesia deny that country the revenue associated with operating a registry, while affiliating potentially suspect vessels with the country without their knowledge. They can also serve as a method for vessels to engage in a form of “reputation laundering,” by allowing ships to mask a history of illicit activity before migrating to a legitimate or more reputable registry. Case in point, the Lian De was deregistered by Tanzania in July 2016 for its links to North Korea, then fraudulently registered under the Fijian flag, and subsequently registered to Panama – the world’s largest open registry – in March 2017.
Fraudulent registrations may also hinder the processes for dealing with a maritime emergency. For example, in January of last year the cargo vessel Tong Da ran aground in Japan while claiming the Fijian flag. In scenarios like this, the vessel’s flag state is generally responsible for rectifying the situation. In this case, however, Fijian authorities reported no record of the vessel when queried by the Japanese, and the vessel appears to have been salvaged without Fijian participation. Similar issues could arise in the case of interdictions of vessels in international waters, which normally require the consent of the vessel’s flag country. It is unclear how this consent would be acquired for a fraudulently registered vessel or, indeed, whether such consent is even needed to interdict a vessel without valid registration.
Vessel identity falsification is a complex issue with implications for the IMO and its members, whether they operate open registries or not. It is even an issue for non-members like Micronesia, that have found themselves the victims of astonishingly brazen acts of fraud. The IMO appears to have finally recognized this, and recently added the subject to the agenda of its Legal Committee. In the readout from that meeting, the IMO claims to have circulated information “[…] to ensure that port State control officers were also informed and would take appropriate action against ships fraudulently flying a flag.” Despite this, it does not appear that much progress has been made in curbing the practice of identify falsification; ships continue to be detained claiming Micronesian and Samoan registration.
While the IMO has begun taking a stand on the issue, this cannot be solved by the IMO alone. The IMO must first take steps to ensure they never again authorize fraudulent registries or accept forged documents, as highlighted in the cases above. But even more importantly, the IMO must coordinate the actions of the international maritime community and act as a leader in encouraging states to share information and act on instances of identity manipulation in their jurisdictions. Increased communication between governments, registrars, and the IMO will reduce gaps and uncertainties currently exploited by illicit actors in the maritime space. This problem will not be solved quickly, but increasing communication and due diligence in the maritime sphere will go a long way towards reducing opportunities for fraud.
Olivia Vassalotti is a researcher interested in nonproliferation, trade controls, and sanctions evasion and implementation.
Cameron Trainer is a Research Associate with the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies currently focusing on sanctions policy and implementation.
Scammer Allegedly Selling FSM Flags Of Convenience, Bogus Seafarers Certificates 12/26/16（Pacific Islands Report）
Fake IDs being used to illegally work on ships around the world
By Bill Jaynes
POHNPEI, Federated States of Micronesia (Kaselehlie Press, Dec. 7, 2016) – Someone whose identity remains to be determined is currently peddling fake FSM “flags of convenience” to international vessels and bogus Seafarers Identifications to seafarers who are using the identifications to illegally work on ships traveling around the world. Whoever is doing it is using the FSM’s seal to make their activities appear to be legitimate. The FSM, however, does not issue flags of convenience to any international vessels, and has no contract with anyone allowing them to represent the FSM.
It appears that someone has made money from the scheme but it has apparently not been the FSM government. The FSM has not authorized the activity.
Jason Elymore, Operations Manager of the Marine Division of the FSM’s Department of Transportation, Communications, and Infrastructure (TC&I), said that the FSM only issues Seafarers Identifications to FSM citizens. He said that the FSM’s vessel registry is a closed registry for vessels operating in FSM waters that have a corporate presence in the FSM.
The FSM is not the first country to have been hit by such a scam. In 2015 Samoa also fell prey to someone issuing similar fake documents on their behalf. Samoa’s Attorney General did not respond to our request for information on those incidents.
Ships carrying a flag of convenience, in essence, become a part of the nation of the flag they carry, subject to the rules and regulations of that nation and not that of the owners’nations. They can use the flag to get around regulations in their home countries. For instance, some European nations would not allow crew members from Syria. A flag of convenience from a country that does not restrict crew composition would allow a ship owner to skirt a regulation that exists in their own country.
The flags have been abused by unscrupulous ship owners and by countries with lax monitoring of the vessels they flag. International organizations have been working for a long time to require countries that provide open ship registries to share liability for the ships they register that “behave badly”, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Two years ago, the Ping Da 7, a huge refrigerated vessel flagged by Kiribati slammed into the reef in Pohnpei. The owner simply walked away and Kiribati had no responsibility. It is still sitting on the reef and still contains thousands of pounds of ammonia refrigerant.
In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded spilling millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The oil platform was flagged by the Marshall Islands which means that it was supposed to be responsible for safety inspections, but RMI was not held responsible for the terrible accident.
A Seafarer’s Identification and Record book is a seafarer’s identity document issued for the purpose of providing the holder with identity papers for travel to or from an assigned vessel. It also provides the holder with a continuous record of his/her sea service and contains the Special Qualification Certificates, which specify the particular category or rating which the holder is qualified to serve. The Seafarer’s ID is not a passport but in some cases can be used in lieu of a passport or in combination with a passport when a seafarer is joining an outward bound vessel. In many countries, visa requirements are waived for holders of a Seafarer’s ID when entering a country.
The bogus Seafarer IDs being illegally issued by someone on behalf of the FSM is causing a bit of a foreign relations stir.
Whoever is issuing the bogus documents made a mistake when they decided to collect money for the fake Seafarer’s Identifications they seem to be printing themselves. They didn’t even get the color right. The Seafarer’s identifications that the FSM issues to its citizens that look like passports are black. The bogus Seafarer’s identifications that have been provided to seafarers from around the world are the color of blue that matches FSM passports.
The FSM’s Seafarer Identification book stock is housed at TC&I. That stock is all accounted for.
“People are traveling around the world with those fake Seafarer Identifications,”said Leo Lekopwe, a consultant for the Marine Division of TC&I. “It’s a big problem.”
“When I came back to work I learned that several ships with ‘FSM flags’had been detained in ‘foreign ports’because they were flying an FSM flag”, Lekopwe said. “But the FSM Department of Justice is looking into it,” he assured us.
The FSM Department of Justice had no comment other than to say that the matter is under review.
FSM, unlike Palau and the Marshall Islands, one of the world’s largest ship registries with approximately $6.5 million in registration fees returned to the RMI government last year, doesn’t have a law that allows for “flags of convenience”. No one, not even the FSM government itself has been authorized by law to provide flags to vessels from other countries. Our laws simply don’t allow for it.
Further, whoever is collecting fees for the fake documents has apparently not submitted a single dime of that ill gotten money to the FSM coffers.
Local attorney Martin Jano said that he met with a man he identified only as “Professor Sharma” or “Captain Sharma,” who he was introduced to by FSM Secretary for TC&I, Lukner Weilbacher. He said that he was asked if he could help Sharma to obtain a foreign investment permit to issue ship registries. Having handled the intricacies of foreign investment permits many times, Jano agreed to represent “Professor Sharma”and began the process of applying to set up the company.
He filed applications, purchased a local post office box on behalf of his client and rented office space. Meanwhile someone also set up a website for a company called “Micronesia International Ship Registry”or, alternatively “Micronesia International Ship and Business Registry”on the .FM domain. The website offered a variety of services including corporate registration, international ship registry, and Seafarer’s Identifications.
Jano says that the FSM Department of Justice notified him that they must take down the website and close the post office box and their office space since the company did not have authorization to pursue a ship or a business registry.
He says that though they had paid for a full year of rent for the office space, the yet to be established company complied. He claimed that no one ever even set foot in the office before they were told they had to shut it down. “We lost money before we could even get started,”he said when he called our office in response to our inquiries about the company’s activities.
After the website on the .FM domain was taken down, someone created a new website at www.misrbc.com, a site that will not load in the FSM but will load elsewhere. As recently as today, that site was still available in the United States and was still offering ship registry, seafarer identifications, and corporate registrations along with a host of other services. The website claims that, “Micronesia International Ship & Business Company Registry is administering maritime and offshore company registry for government of the Federated States of Micronesia.”
Currently, Micronesia Registrations Advisors has the only contract with the FSM to provide corporate registration services for captive insurance and other types of registrations. CEO Stephen Baker said that MRA was approached about the idea of providing ship registration for the FSM but felt that something wasn’t quite right about it and declined.
According to a brochure prominently featuring the seal of the FSM, Micronesia International Ship Registry had a booth in Dubai at the International Shipsuppliers& Services Association’s convention from October 31 through November 2 to promote services that the FSM Department of Justice had already told them to stop offering. The brochure listed the J&T Building in Kolonia Pohnpei as its address. It also listed two Pohnpei cell phone numbers as contacts. We dialed both numbers. One of them has been disconnected. The other went to the personal phone of Renwick Weilbacher who said that the company must have made a mistake in listing his phone number.
With the brochure was a business card for a Captain Inder Jit Singh also featuring the FSM seal. The card said that Singh is the Director for Maritime Security. It says that the FSM flag is the “Flag of Responsibility and Prosperity.”It doesn’t mention that FSM doesn’t have an open registry and that the activities they were promoting were completely illegal in the FSM.
Several “LinkedIn”pages continue to offer the services that MISRBC says that it can provide. The .com website itself doesn’t use the seal of the FSM Government but several of the company’s LinkedIn pages do. Encircling the seal is the name of the non-existent company. Another of the yet to be established company’s LinkedIn pages contains a photo of a Seafarer’s Identification book that viewers seem to be led to believe was issued by the FSM. It is blue in color instead of the black booklet that the FSM issues to its citizens.
One of the MISRBC or MISR LinkedIn pages says that Padmanabhan Krishnan is the Director (Admin) of MISBR. The still operating MIRBC website lists him as the “Regional Maritime Administrative Manager (for maritime administration & Safety Management)”.
Early this week, Mr. Jano said that he was shocked to learn that someone was issuing fake documents and said he had previously written Professor Sharma instructing him that he should cease and dismantle any operations of the proposed company because the permit had not yet been approved. He assured us that “Professor Sharma”was taking steps to stop promotions for FSM ship registry and Seafarer’s IDs but that it would take time. He said that he expects that everything would be taken down by January.
He also said that DOJ does not have an attorney that specializes in maritime law so they consulted an attorney in Fiji who is an expert. That attorney analyzed Title 19 of the FSM code and concluded that it did not bar an open registry.
Nonetheless, Jano said that Professor Sharma has fully cooperated with the Department of Justice and has provided the department with a full accounting of his activities.
Bogus Flags and Seafarer identifications being sold in the name of the FSM 12/07/16（The Kaselehlie Press）
By Bill Jaynes
The Kaselehlie Press
December 7, 2016
FSM—Someone whose identity remains to be determined is currently peddling fake FSM “flags of convenience”to international vessels and bogus Seafarers Identifications to seafarers who are using the identifications to illegally work on ships traveling around the world. Whoever is doing it is using the FSM’s seal to make their activities appear to be legitimate. The FSM, however, does not issue flags of convenience to any international vessels, and has no contract with anyone allowing them to represent the FSM.
It appears that someone has made money from the scheme but it has apparently not been the FSM government. The FSM has not authorized the activity.
Jason Elymore, Operations Manager of the Marine Division of the FSM’s Department of Transportation, Communications, and Infrastructure (TC&I), said that the FSM only issues Seafarers Identifications to FSM citizens. He said that the FSM’s vessel registry is a closed registry for vessels operating in FSM waters that have a corporate presence in the FSM.
The FSM is not the first country to have been hit by such a scam. In 2015 Samoa also fell prey to someone issuing similar fake documents on their behalf. Samoa’s Attorney General did not respond to our request for information on those incidents.
Ships carrying a flag of convenience, in essence, become a part of the nation of the flag they carry, subject to the rules and regulations of that nation and not that of the owners’nations. They can use the flag to get around regulations in their home countries. For instance, some European nations would not allow crew members from Syria. A flag of convenience from a country that does not restrict crew composition would allow a ship owner to skirt a regulation that exists in their own country.
The flags have been abused by unscrupulous ship owners and by countries with lax monitoring of the vessels they flag. International organizations have been working for a long time to require countries that provide open ship registries to share liability for the ships they register that “behave badly”, but it hasn’t happened yet.
Two years ago, the Ping Da 7, a huge refrigerated vessel flagged by Kiribati slammed into the reef in Pohnpei. The owner simply walked away and Kiribati had no responsibility. It is still sitting on the reef and still contains thousands of pounds of ammonia refrigerant.
In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig exploded spilling millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The oil platform was flagged by the Marshall Islands which means that it was supposed to be responsible for safety inspections, but RMI was not held responsible for the terrible accident.
A Seafarer’s Identification and Record book is a seafarer’s identity document issued for the purpose of providing the holder with identity papers for travel to or from an assigned vessel. It also provides the holder with a continuous record of his/her sea service and contains the Special Qualification Certificates, which specify the particular category or rating which the holder is qualified to serve. The Seafarer’s ID is not a passport but in some cases can be used in lieu of a passport or in combination with a passport when a seafarer is joining an outward bound vessel. In many countries, visa requirements are waived for holders of a Seafarer’s ID when entering a country.
The bogus Seafarer IDs being illegally issued by someone on behalf of the FSM is causing a bit of a foreign relations stir.
Whoever is issuing the bogus documents made a mistake when they decided to collect money for the fake Seafarer’s Identifications they seem to be printing themselves. They didn’t even get the color right. The Seafarer’s identifications that the FSM issues to its citizens that look like passports are black. The bogus Seafarer’s identifications that have been provided to seafarers from around the world are the color of blue that matches FSM passports.
The FSM’s Seafarer Identification book stock is housed at TC&I. That stock is all accounted for.
“People are traveling around the world with those fake Seafarer Identifications,”said Leo Lekopwe, a consultant for the Marine Division of TC&I. “It’s a big problem.”
“When I came back to work I learned that several ships with ‘FSM flags’had been detained in ‘foreign ports’because they were flying an FSM flag”, Lekopwe said. “But the FSM Department of Justice is looking into it,” he assured us.
The FSM Department of Justice had no comment other than to say that the matter is under review.
FSM, unlike Palau and the Marshall Islands, one of the world’s largest ship registries with approximately $6.5 million in registration fees returned to the RMI government last year, doesn’t have a law that allows for “flags of convenience”. No one, not even the FSM government itself has been authorized by law to provide flags to vessels from other countries. Our laws simply don’t allow for it.
Further, whoever is collecting fees for the fake documents has apparently not submitted a single dime of that ill gotten money to the FSM coffers.
Local attorney Martin Jano said that he met with a man he identified only as “Professor Sharma” or “Captain Sharma,” who he was introduced to by FSM Secretary for TC&I, Lukner Weilbacher. He said that he was asked if he could help Sharma to obtain a foreign investment permit to issue ship registries. Having handled the intricacies of foreign investment permits many times, Jano agreed to represent “Professor Sharma”and began the process of applying to set up the company.
He filed applications, purchased a local post office box on behalf of his client and rented office space. Meanwhile someone also set up a website for a company called “Micronesia International Ship Registry”or, alternatively “Micronesia International Ship and Business Registry”on the .FM domain. The website offered a variety of services including corporate registration, international ship registry, and Seafarer’s Identifications.
Jano says that the FSM Department of Justice notified him that they must take down the website and close the post office box and their office space since the company did not have authorization to pursue a ship or a business registry.
He says that though they had paid for a full year of rent for the office space, the yet to be established company complied. He claimed that no one ever even set foot in the office before they were told they had to shut it down. “We lost money before we could even get started,”he said when he called our office in response to our inquiries about the company’s activities.
After the website on the .FM domain was taken down, someone created a new website at www.misrbc.com, a site that will not load in the FSM but will load elsewhere. As recently as today, that site was still available in the United States and was still offering ship registry, seafarer identifications, and corporate registrations along with a host of other services. The website claims that, “Micronesia International Ship & Business Company Registry is administering maritime and offshore company registry for government of the Federated States of Micronesia.”
Currently, Micronesia Registrations Advisors has the only contract with the FSM to provide corporate registration services for captive insurance and other types of registrations. CEO Stephen Baker said that MRA was approached about the idea of providing ship registration for the FSM but felt that something wasn’t quite right about it and declined.
According to a brochure prominently featuring the seal of the FSM, Micronesia International Ship Registry had a booth in Dubai at the International Shipsuppliers& Services Association’s convention from October 31 through November 2 to promote services that the FSM Department of Justice had already told them to stop offering. The brochure listed the J&T Building in Kolonia Pohnpei as its address. It also listed two Pohnpei cell phone numbers as contacts. We dialed both numbers. One of them has been disconnected. The other went to the personal phone of Renwick Weilbacher who said that the company must have made a mistake in listing his phone number.
With the brochure was a business card for a Captain Inder Jit Singh also featuring the FSM seal. The card said that Singh is the Director for Maritime Security. It says that the FSM flag is the “Flag of Responsibility and Prosperity.”It doesn’t mention that FSM doesn’t have an open registry and that the activities they were promoting were completely illegal in the FSM.
Several “LinkedIn”pages continue to offer the services that MISRBC says that it can provide. The .com website itself doesn’t use the seal of the FSM Government but several of the company’s LinkedIn pages do. Encircling the seal is the name of the non-existent company. Another of the yet to be established company’s LinkedIn pages contains a photo of a Seafarer’s Identification book that viewers seem to be led to believe was issued by the FSM. It is blue in color instead of the black booklet that the FSM issues to its citizens.
One of the MISRBC or MISR LinkedIn pages says that Padmanabhan Krishnan is the Director (Admin) of MISBR. The still operating MIRBC website lists him as the “Regional Maritime Administrative Manager (for maritime administration & Safety Management)”.
Early this week, Mr. Jano said that he was shocked to learn that someone was issuing fake documents and said he had previously written Professor Sharma instructing him that he should cease and dismantle any operations of the proposed company because the permit had not yet been approved. He assured us that “Professor Sharma”was taking steps to stop promotions for FSM ship registry and Seafarer’s IDs but that it would take time. He said that he expects that everything would be taken down by January.
He also said that DOJ does not have an attorney that specializes in maritime law so they consulted an attorney in Fiji who is an expert. That attorney analyzed Title 19 of the FSM code and concluded that it did not bar an open registry.
Nonetheless, Jano said that Professor Sharma has fully cooperated with the Department of Justice and has provided the department with a full accounting of his activities.
フィリピンでの船舶による油流出事故
パナマ船籍の「マリナ アイリス」が沈没！
カンボジア籍船
トーゴ籍船
モンゴル籍船
シエラレオネ籍船
コモロ連合船籍
グルジア籍船
キリバス籍船
パラオ籍船
フィジ籍船
タンザニア籍船
ベリーズ籍船
モルジブ籍船
ミクロネシア籍船
ニウエ籍船
セント キッツ籍船
