THERE is widespread ignorance and indifference about fraudulent flagging and registration, according to research undertaken by Sweden’s World Maritime University and presented in an interim report to the International Maritime Organization.

The university was commissioned by the IMO secretariat to study flag registry fraud and related clandestine activities. It had a 14% response rate to a questionnaire distributed to member states, recognised organisations, marine insurers and industry groups as part of its fact-finding.

Maritime fraud was last reviewed in 1983, the report presented to the IMO’s legal committee said, so a detailed questionnaire was compiled and sent to IMO representatives via the secretariat.

The questionnaire’s recipients included 175 member states, 61 recognised organisations or classification societies, the International Group of P&I clubs, as well as 16 non-IG clubs and 18 underwriters.

Thirty-one member states representing 22.75% of the world’s tonnage responded, according to the interim report. Only six of the 61 recognised organisations or class societies responded, and none of the non-IG clubs.

No underwriters had responded at the time the interim report was published on January 13. The study noted that tanker industry group Intertanko had returned the questionnaire but shipowners’ representative BIMCO had not.

That puts the response rate of 39 out of 283 questionnaire recipients at just under 14%.

The legal committee’s work to identify and eradicate fraudulent practices began in 2014, with 66 vessels falsely claiming they are flagged with 15 registries, including very large crude carriers engaged in US-sanctioned Iranian oil trades, based on the committee’s lastest report.

The proliferation of small, poorly managed flag registries has provided a safe haven for a dark fleet of more than 300 elderly, sub-standard and poorly maintained tankers engaged in deceptive shipping practices while almost solely deployed in Russia, Venezuelan and Iranian trades, increasing the urgency to address regulatory and safety issues.

In addition to fraudulent registries or false flagging, vessel identity laundering, fake class societies, illegitimate P&I clubs and forged documents have been uncovered in the past three years, exploiting regulatory gaps in global maritime trade.

Tankers fraudulently spoofing their identity to impersonate ships owned by Frontline, one of the world’s best-known tanker operators, have even appeared in the IMO’s own database.

The World Maritime University said the majority of responses from the questionnaire “reflected a lack of knowledge of fraudulent ship registries and incidents of fraudulent registration”.

“From those that answered affirmatively, in many cases there was no personal knowledge but rather information publicly circulated.”

Practices associated with fraudulent registered ships were ship-to-ship transfers of illegal cargo, unjustified switching-off of Automatic Identification Systems and sanctions-breaking, according to the interim report.

These practices risked seafarers’ lives and threatened marine pollution through illegal and substandard operations, survey respondents said.

There was a need for these practices to be made an international crime, and covered by criminal law, in addition to making them infringements against IMO legal instruments, according to those that answered questions on whether such acts should be considered a crime under international law.

The secretariat’s report to the IMO legal committee said a study group, led by the university and established in March 2022, would consider ways to get more stakeholders to respond.

The preliminary results will be discussed by the committee when it next meets between March 27 to 31.