By Jeffrey A. Newman Esq.
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article today about Global Marketing Systems, Inc. (GMS), the world’s largest cash buyer of offshore assets for recycling. I had never heard of GMS or even the kind of company , but its darned interesting. What GMS does is it buys old ships including tankers, bilkers, cruise liners and it gets them to recylcing yards. There, the ships are dismantled, stripped and the steel is melted down or reused. GMs is essentially a middleman that handles the logistics including financing, compliance with environmental standards.
According to the WSJ, this month, the company’s management met with the Treasury department for a license to buy the sanctioned ships. Kudo’s for GMS’s management for creativity and gumption to go after these vessels. I only wish that the recycling yards were located in the US and not India or elsewhere but that’s something for another day. GMS’s owner is quoted as touting the great value of its operations in helping the US to cut the size of the “shadow” fleet that carry the Venezuelan oil to adversarial nations, mostly uninsured and the vessels are not safe and deteriorating. The ocean trade routes are congested and the shadow ships pose a dnager to legitimate vessels. GMS is inforporated in Maryland and its HQ is in Dubai.
Of course individuals, including GMS management who have unique information that would help the US find and apprehend those companies supporting the Ghost ship operation can report to the US Government under whistleblower laws. This would help the US in finding and apprehending the vessels of which there are likely over 926 of them under sanctions today. But that too not the focus. The operational confluence between US policies and potential profits for private companies forges a larger implementation capability for the US to stop these vessels. This means that private companies can help reduce the cost of operations to hald the ghost fleet as well as incentivizing such unificiation in many other arenas. This portends to help the US economic positions and is also a more creative approach to the problems we face as a nation. While I am aware that some will argue that the merger of public policy and private company operations should be allowed, I don’t agree.
Here is a copy of the WSJ article: https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-one-big-ship-buyer-wants-shadow-fleet-tankers-9a2edfb5?mod=business_lead_pos3
Jeffrey Newman is a whistleblower lawyer whose national firm in Boston represents whistleblowers of violations of export controls, tariff evasions, money laundering, healthcare fraud and other kinds of WB cases. The firm represents individuals both in the United States and other countries. Mr. Newman and his firm staff also represent many physicians across the country who become whistleblowers in healthcare fraud cases. Whistleblower laws in the U.S. allow individuals anywhere with information about export control violations or tariff fraud to reveal the information under The False Claims act or through the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Whistleblower Program. The Firm’s website is at www.JeffNewmanLaw.com and attorney Newman can be reached at Jeff@Jeffnewmanlaw.com or at 978-880-4758. FOR OTHER ARTICLES LIKE THIS ONE IN ADDITION TO WHISTLEBLOWER INFO PLEASE SEE MY BLOGS AT https://jeffnewmanlaw.com/utm_source=GMB&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=Marblehead
