Insurers Win Court Battle Over Bogus Pirate Attack Fraud

“The improbable can happen. But when a number of improbabilities occur consecutively within a short period of time it is very difficult to accept that they are coincidences.”

Those were the words of British High Court judge Mr Justice Teare when he concluded that the US$77 million insurance claim over the constructive total loss of oil tanker Brillante Virtuoso should be dismissed.

Handed down yesterday (October 07) at the Commercial Court, the ruling pointed to owner Marios Iliopoulos as “the instigator of the conspiracy” to set the vessel on fire through a bogus pirate attack in 2011 in the Gulf of Aden.

The so-called improbabilities included the actions of Brillante Virtuoso’s master and chief engineer during the supposed attack.

For instance, the master did not sound the ship security alert system alarm while being aware that a boat containing armed, masked men was alongside the tanker.