Page 21 - Insurance Times November 2023

more than 36 hours. Late in the afternoon on July 26, a Fortune Investments Limited, the vessel's owner ("the
group of men wearing civilian clothes came and bundled Owner"), and by Piraeus Bank AE ("the Bank"), the vessel's
Facey into one of the vehicles, eventually sending him to the mortgagee. The vessel's insured value was US$55 million plus
airport. The men didn't identify themselves, but Facey US$22 million for disbursements and increased value. Thus
thought he knew who they were. U.S. special forces were the claim was for the sum of US$77 million on the basis that
active throughout southern Yemen at the time, coordinating the vessel was a constructive total loss by reason of the
drone strikes and commando raids on al-Qaeda-linked damage caused by the fire.
militants. Facey flew out of Aden without ever learning who
wanted him dead. In the first stage of the trial, in January 2015, Flaux J.
determined that the vessel was, as claimed by the Owner
Another British citizen soon arrived to investigate Mockett's and the Bank, but denied by the underwriters, a constructive
murder, Mr. Jonathan Tottman. There wasn't much to total loss under sec. 60(2)(i) of the Marine Insurance Act
investigate. The authorities had cleared the site of the car 1906, as she was damaged by an insured peril and the cost
bomb almost immediately, Mockett's laptop disappeared of repairs would exceed the insured value of the ship when
into police custody. In the weeks after the bombing, another repaired.
of Mockett's longtime friends asked a Pakistani surveyor in
Aden to see what he could find out about the Brillante. The In 2016, the Owner's claim was struck out after Flaux J. had
Pakistani was soon arrested. Yemeni officials took his found that Mr. Iliopoulos, the sole or principal beneficial
passport and detained him for five days in a shabby building owner of Suez Fortune, had refused, in breach of a court
near the harbour, locking him in a small room with only a order, to provide his solicitors with an electronic archive of
bucket for drinking water. documents and had lied to the court in an attempt to
prevent the claim from being struck out.
After his release, the man fled the country, and Mockett's
friend took the incident as a warning to stop asking The second stage of the trial, looked at the issue of the liability
questions. By late August, the remains of the Brillante were of insurers after the claim had been continued by the Bank.
anchored in safe waters off the United Arab Emirates, The Bank also had a mortgagee interest insurance policy and
towed there by another Greek-run company, Five Oceans the underwriters of that policy have paid out and thereby
Salvage, that had partnered with Poseidon. With the tanker claim to be subrogated to the Bank's claim. The Bank
finally secure, small teams of inspectors visited the vessel retained an interest in the claim, being the difference
taking measurements and photos. Among them were agents between the sum said to be payable under the war risks policy,
from the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service; who were some US$77 million, and the sum paid out by the mortgagee
also joined by fire and explosives experts, and also people interest underwriters, some US$64 million.
hired by the companies that owned the ship and cargo, and
the insurers of both. In a judgment handed down on October 7, 2019, after a
trial that took 52 days and heard from numerous witnesses
In London, four months later, two groups of insurers were of fact and expert witnesses, Mr. Justice Teare ruled that
facing major Brillante claims and needed to decide whether war risk underwriters did not have to pay the Bank
to fight or write checks. The first claim concerned the oil US$77million for the explosion aboard an oil tanker because
cargo. The lead salvor, Five Oceans, was asking for about the Owner had orchestrated a fake pirate attack in an
$30 million from a group of three underwriters. Royal & Sun attempt to commit insurance fraud. Mr Justice Teare pointed
Alliance Insurance Group, Zurich Insurance Group, and specifically to several matters (many of them improbabilities)
Allianz.as a reward for saving the payload. The second claim which, when viewed collectively, "cogently suggest that the
involved the Brillante itself. Suez, the owner, wanted supposed attack by pirates was a fake attack". The chosen
ultimately to recover about $100 million, covering the hull, method of scuttling was said to involve the Owner in
machinery, and forgone profits, plus interest, from a group orchestrating an extraordinary set of events. The Bank had
of 10 companies led by Talbot Underwriting Ltd. also submitted that the loss was caused by one or more
insured perils (namely piracy, "persons acting maliciously"
The other claims were on the vessel's war risks policy by Suez and/or "capture, seizure, arrest, restraint or detainment").

20 November 2023 The Insurance Times