Hijacking and Murder in Global Shipping’s Grim Underbelly
In July 2011, the oil tanker Brillante Virtuoso was drifting through the treacherous Gulf of Aden when a crew of pirates attacked and set her ablaze. When David Mockett, a maritime surveyor, inspected the vessel, he was left with more questions than answers. Soon after his inspection, Mockett was killed in a car bombing.
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#BrillanteVirtuoso #Storylines #BloombergQuicktake
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Poor Guy doing his job on the verge of retirement.... And gets blown away. And the bank sweeps the debt under the carpet . Terrible injustice. Great Doc
Literally
Horrible stuff. At least the man didn't have a painful passing.
@@rorschacht8478 You don't know that. He could have had his underside blown up, but the upper part of his body could have held him alive for a few long minutes or seconds.
@@rorschacht8478 maybe not though... He might have just been incapacitated by the initial blast & burned alive..! That car didn't look too damaged, it was more a fire bomb than an almighty blast bomb.! I'm choosing to believe he was killed outright though because I've seen what happens when a person is trapped in a burning car & I want to sleep tonight.!
a pile of humanoid *rats* .
Capt. David Mockett was a dear, dear friend of mine. 💔 Thank you for telling his story.
very sad, hopefully the Greek owner gets his comeuppance one day soon
Sad how those who seek truth are literally cancelled. Those responsible will ultimately be held responsible. Jehovah will have the final say.
@@joecampbell6486 Criminals usually do.
He was my hero
I'm sorry for your loss. Your friend was a brave man.
For a documentary about a ship this was absolutely riveting.
😂 thanks dad .......😂😂😂
titanic was better
Truly hope you're being sarcastic. This was boring and very predicable
Well done
thanks to Bloomberg for shining a light into one of the murkier corners of the world... genuinely fascinating
Except that it's Bloomberg so I automatically assume liberties are taken with the story for political bent.
This is top shelf journalism. Great work.
90%
Had me intrigued I must admit
Nerds
@@FitnessPlanB fish brain
Its called reading the courts documents
This should be a movie. For one, it’s very exciting and interesting. Two, David Mockett deserves to have his story told and memory honored.
American propaganda movie? F that. I stopped watching american movies when USA made the rock a movie star. THE WORST ACTOR EVER!!! He is worse then Steven Segal. Why is he in movies??
So why don’t they? Chuck grenades off the side of the boat at these guys or shoot at them just seems ridiculous that they don’t even try to fight back or defend themselves.
Wow, I thought the exact same thing!! This documentary has a powerful message. This is just so sad..RIP Capt David Mockett 😥
@@kateapple1 they literally can't carry weapons under international law. they have to use things like water guns or sonic weapons
David was a top surveyor - bravely dealt with a hijacking for our team in Sharjah
I knew a Swedish guy who had once been an Interpol officer. He had a 30 ft yacht that he burned for insurance. Got away with it, but when he later burned a fishing boat as well, he got caught and went to jail.
Beautifully done. It is one of the few news programs that restores my faith in journalism.
Just don't consider the liberal media 'REAL' journalism and you'll be o.k. 😁
Need more documentaries like this
That was excellent, I'd never heard of David Mockett or this incident, incisive and well compiled report
RIP David. Thank you for sharing this story
This was also covered on BBC Sounds in three 30 minute episodes, The Case of the Brillante Virtuoso. Along with another series, Lost at Seat, looking into disappearances of fisheries observers it makes the maritime industry look like a dangerous lawless place.
Yeah, but this also is very tempting to take an old retired tanker vessel over there to lure their pirates out onto the ocean for them to try to hijack the tanker and when they get close enough to the tanker with their small boats, dump a bunch of rocks over the side into their boats. The rocks would go completely through the bottoms of their boats hulls and sink them leaving them having to swim for miles to get home, or get eaten by sharks. 😁👍
@@glenturney4750 nothing wrong with saving out of date flares for such an eventuality.
Lawless Oceans documentary too...
It has been and will always be.Oceans are tooooo large to police
BBC sounds has some fantastic content
Well done. I wish journalism could be like this again... make it so!
They should do a movie about this, brilliant story
Who is ""They"" ? Who are They ?
@@andrew_koala2974 when you're grown....you'll get it or youlll still be blabbing for NOUGHT.
That would be great. Even a mini series for tv. The type of thing that the BBC used to do years ago.
if the insurance industry is so convinced of his guilt, then why doesn't it just label him as a pariah and make him uninsurable anywhere?
maybe they did or at least his rates are much higher
They rather go for middle class $50,000 car insurance fraud
Hes white that's why he got off
He's got lots of other ships that need insurance
May be he is paying higher rates of insurance premiums because of the added risk. But the fact of him owning numerous other ships he is too valuable an asset to be ignored.........
And "Super" Mario (Illiopoulos) has the biggest feet of ferries (Seajets) in the Aegean Sea. Allthough I go island hopping for 6-7 weeks twice a year in the Aegean, I always plan my trips in a way that I avoid having to use a Seajets ferry.
I am a news watcher and I had never heard of any of this, and I live in the UK. I bet "super" Mario has a bit of trouble trying to get the rest of his fleet covered in the future. As far as it goes it was pretty much doomed to failure - loose lips might sink ships but the loose lips of the people in his employ cost him dear. He should have been made to compensate Mr. Mockett's family for killing him and he should be in jail. Let's just hope nobody messes with the brakes on his toy car.
Excellent idea. Emagenine living constantly looking over your shoulder and then for the last time. justice. Strikes.
More such investigative journalism pls.
wow some actual journalism, congrats
I agree, most of these Bloomberg docs have been terrible.This one was exceptional.
What an evil man. At the end of the video he wants the maritime industry to go “it’s not that bad it’s just one bad guy” but it’s not. The maritime industry is absolutely rife with the most vile greedy evil people you can imagine. It is literally cutthroat
They're pirates
Corporate criminals, basically.
@Wall Street Journal FAKE FAKE FAKE
I think piracy is where the term cutthroat came from.
All starts from the elites, corporates supported by corrupted Government. It's quite ironic that this honest British was conducting his work with integrity and was murdered and now Britain is doing the same to honest journalist Julian Assage who is being slowly tortured to death in UK prison under orders from US.
Always a great story when these two journalists are involved 👍
It is known that greek owners are not shying away from sinking their own ship together with full crew for the insurance money, happened to a friend of mine.
How do you think Onassis got started ?
For which shipping company did your friend work for?
Top quality content should have millions of views 👍👍
45 years at sea. it is often said, there are two types of ship owner, those that are "doing time" and those that should be.
A truly great story, matched with great journalism. Thanks Bloomberg!
Very impressive piece of investigative journalism 👌 👍
Greek shipping owners are known for this. They are the shadiest people on the world because of the culture around shipping and the laws
I'd say these insurance companies never pay unless you take them to court .
They should have a look at how many older vessels, near the end of their service life and fully insured, were steaming circles in the Persian Gulf during the Iraq wars looking for sea mines to run into.
It's called The Outlaw Sea, A World of Freedom, Chaos, and Crime by William Langewiesche and I'm sure others have written on the subject too. Greek shippers wield a huge amount of power in Greece in the government.
Wonderful story, thanks Bloomberg!!
This is what journalism looks like. Not taking side, just letting the facts speaks for themselves
⚓️ Thanks Kit Matt 😎 this is just the tip of the berg, additionally the cargo had probably been sold & seawater substituted. Small boat ops… as in the oil industry tugs barges all sorts of smuggling & trafficking occurs.
Yes, I speculated on that as well, wish they had reported on it. The oil is a seperate policy but I don't know who buys the policy, who owns it while in transit. It would make sense that the shipper needs to insure it?
I think you would have to be very naive to believe this kind of behaviour is unusual or even limited to shipping.. corruption and business are the same animal viewed from different ends of the telescope.. and are only divided by the number of zeros in use..
Agreed... Very well said!!! 👍
horse racing business comes to mind.
yeah corruption exists in nearly every level in all places from industry to politics to entertainment. It's crazy how much corruption there is, people would be seriously shocked at the type of stuff you can get away with when you have money and power. It's an incredibly dark world we live in.
@@kevinkemble3718 Would you elaborate a bit more on the corruption in the horse racing business?
Incredibly interesting story, one can well imagine that a lot more things of that nature happen on the high seas. Cruise ships have also had some unsolved missing persons mysteries.
Same thing with fishing boats... our landlord ( admittedly a piece of "work") in Japan mysteriously didn't make it back one trip.
Most cruise ship missing persons are from jumpers that no one saw jump
There’s vids online of people getting shot in water, not Somalia style. A fair few nationalities, Burmese mayyybe, Myanmar area of people. Nuts, they weren’t pirates, more merchant navy but (highly doubtful of their accreditations). Mental
@@headaqe1708 two of those from Australia a few years ago..a young married couple, complete mystery!!
@@JTA1961 Titanic
Scary stuff. Sad it cost a man, a Dad, and Grandfather, his life, and no charges were brought against the owner/business man. So what was he killed for? And nobody was punished for that ??? His family has no recourse or any form of justice :( 🧡🙏
Dead people don't talk . Prove it was them who done it . The law is designed to protect those who do the worst
Palestine and Iraq have had no justice yet
Globalist politics...what can you do? Justice is a fantasy unexistant in real life.
yes mam
Such a horrible thing that happened from these people who did this.
You neglected to mention, what happened to the cargo of fuel oil, worth $100 million ? Who owned the cargo? Who chartered the vessel from the Greeks? Was there an insurance claim by cargo owners? Was the ship even loaded with oil? It is not uncommon to make claims for cargo, that is not onboard. Why would the ship owners scuttle a fully laden vessel of oil? There is a potential environmental disaster here? A major ship owner would not take on that sort of risk, endangering their reputation in the tanker market.
This vessel sailing Ukraine for China, as an old quote from my country (BR) that say think so; there is "core" in this mush, maybe is why many of those involved certainly preferred not to explain what happened and leave it alone to avoid greater repercussions
Shipping industry is still very much involved in human trafficking as well.
Excellent presentation, totally enjoyed it
Well researched Documentary. David Mockett's family must feel so much hurt.
Great journalism and a great video
Tangential: The shipping companies simply made a $ calculation and decided the lives of those on the boats of less value than paying ransom for which they had insurance for vs security. Once it started to get too costly and started to get too much attention from media etc, did they do anything about it and hire security details for those ships. I knew several guys who did that work who put .50 cal bullets into a few pirate boats to let them know this ship was not interested in paying ransom and would end you if you attempted to take the ship. Pirates turned and ran like cowards each time, it got around the ships were now regularly armed, and along with various governments sending ships to protect the shipping lanes and such, the pirate problem dried up. Greed per usual, why it existed in the first place.
Amazing things happen in maritime business. I worked in related business for 10 years and very strange things happen......and no one looks !
True, this is a bilionary "invisible" industry!!!
Thanks for the very well done and enlightening film!
Top notch journalism 🇬🇧
I've been watching storyline for the past 3 hours. These are amazing investigative journalism stories
Amazing video as always.
"Too difficult to prosecute a case"? Call the SAS.
I really enjoyed learning about this murky world. Thankyou guys, well presenred✌🏻
My buddy's uncle was a commerical fisherman. He had some unbelievable stories. I'm starting to think he wasn't bullshiting ......
Agreed... Very well said!!! 👍
Great documentary!!
Remember the "Lukona" and Proksch? In terms of lives sacrificed in order to commit insurance fraud on the high seas Proksch did quite well too. But at least Proksch got what he deserved for his crimes thanks to a persistent investigative judge. What's funny is that Proksch and this shipowner Iliopoulos guy share a certain similarity in their facial features.
The Titanic was not sunk it was the sister ship the Olympic they changed the name on dry dock after she got damaged by a British war ship. They had no insurance on the Olympic so they sunk it after renaming it the Titanic. If you look at all the details none of the captains moves made sense and their was a ship waiting with blankets right where it sunk after the explosions.
Wonderful job from Bloomberg...very scarce news about this topic...belive this is unique!!!
This is literally a ready movie script.
Agreed
Truth always stranger than fiction. 👍🏻🏴
Very enjoyable indeed and well explained to, top stuff cobba.. ...
Great docu. I was transfixed throughout. 5 stars
Killed a man over a insurance fraud discusting
Yeah we saw the towers doco too
even more disgusting that there was no punishment for his crimes
Great show. I'd like to learn more about the financials, though. Perhaps he knew the insurance claim would be mired in years of litigation, prompting a mortgage write-off. But questions remain... Did the ship really have no equity? Why not sell a perfectly functional boat? Useful life? Do boats effectively "wear out"? As long as the hull does not rust through, don't you keep rebuilding the diesel engine and carry on? Was the game to collect 80ish million AFTER the bank had given up on the debt and pocket what would have paid off the first lien in addition to assumed equity?
that comment of the seamens to him, he should be with his grandchildren, not there... that must be enough to be in a plot of murdering, if something happens after this threatening manner... Thanks for brining this up
Boy, that Greek shipowner was a real sweetheart... 🙄
Typical Creek Shipowner. They are known for very scummy Business Practice. E.g. do the Crews wait Months for their Salary, if they get paid at all, get spoiled Food or even no Food at all (aka they must catch their own Food) and the Ships generally are dangerous Rustbuckets.
Crazy world. Superb investigation
Nice job reporting
What? Corruption? I' am SHOOOKED
Brillant documentary! I hadn't come across the term "security detail" before, but I like it. Is there any maritime authority that regulates the size and power of such "security detail" the ship owner or charterer decides to have on board these days?
Some refer to "Security Details" as "Escort", It is usually contracted to the Navy or Private security companies, i'm not sure there's any regulating body.
Yes, the term “escort” is clearer. Thanks Henry.
Very interesting story of a world that I have no clue of - and after watching this never ever want to get into …
I love programs like this !!!!!
Very unfortunate for David Mockett...
great docu thanks for telling it
Reminds me of the movie “captain Phillips”….. this story is so interesting . KZhead brings real news that I would have never heard about !
Excellent video!! A whole different level of storytelling and production vis a vis those clickbait videos with somehow ten times the views. Testament to what Google is doing to people.
They didn’t say anything about the crew
They had a scare but were ok in the end. One of them was probably involved but was never charged or anything.
...yeah. . . interrogations or some questioning maybe. . . the moment they mentioned the 2 Filipino crew. . .it did interest me because I am a Filipino...
Very interesting great journalism
Fabulous report ‼️ Totally sad no one was brought to trial for the fire and the fraud. Boooooo to the bank that wrote of the loan debt.
Ship owner must have got loan from the bank working hand in gloves with bank employees, offering them handsome rewards. So in the end, only bank desositers in the end lose money. It's always the common people who pay the price.
Is beyond believe that small group of pirates take over a gigantic tanker ,when they could be blown off the water, something just don’t make sense with a cargo so big I would think more security is needed to secure the ship
Back in the early 2010's, insurers didn't want to pay for security and instead relied on the naval vessels of European and the US to patrol the area as a deterrent. They got over that pretty quick when they realized how much they were paying in ransom compared to the costs for a couple armed guards on each ship since the navies of the world weren't permitted to actually use force to prevent pirate attacks. Once they started to demand armed security be present on ships traveling around that region, the piracy threat decreased rapidly as the pirates learned that being on a small skiff in the middle of the ocean means you don't have much chance of survival when the ship you're trying to capture suddenly opens fire with machine guns.
Keep in mind that your average cargo ship's crew is pretty small compared with size of the ship.... this tanker was the length of three football fields with multiple levels of corridors & rooms throughout. So it's not so easy to secure & defend all that space with a handful of crew, none of whom are trained in defence & often unable to legally carry a firearm onboard. Pirates would simply climb onboard as far away from the bridge as possible & brandish their weapons knowing the crew had none. Shipping companies don't want to pay for any more crew than they need, so as long as piracy wasn't costing them more than hiring security (and they could rely on navies to patrol the waters), security wasn't a priority.
I think they also were concerned about liability for fighting back, because they seemed pretty slow to do so, I think even after getting armed guards.
@@nobodyspecial4702 Asian navy too, ie PLAN & such. Of course, most Western media conveniently blur that out .
@@seandelaney1700 what liability? Nobody's gonna care about a bunch of deceased pirates.
Our world is a very dark, and disturbing place, and most people have no idea, really, how bad it can be. It's a terrifying shame that, this man had to lose his life in the name of money. On a side note, at the 14:00 mark, doesn't this ship's owner look like Frank Fritz from the TV show American Pickers???
A bit, yeah.
There are things that you know, things that you don’t, and there are things that you don’t even know you don’t know.
@@112chapters3 And there are things that you know, that you wish you did not know.
@@PaganWizard ha, my guy, ha there certainly is Edit : who told you?
@@112chapters3 Trust me, you don't want to know.
I assume the bank wrote it off in order to keep this criminal as a profitable client, wish it had been addressed. You mentioned the separate insurance policy for the oil, who procures or buys that? Was there oil recovered or did he try and scam that policy as well?
Excelente documentário! Parabéns pela oportunidade de conhecer a realidade daqueles que precisam trabalhar no mar pra sustentar seus familiares.
The last part should have been the first, i.e., "the ship was at the end of it's commercial life" explains it all. Any Greek (particularly if he is from Cyprus) can figure out the rest. I bet all the Philipino crew members are awaiting a call from Iliopoulos for their next employment.
This is exactly why I get upset when I hear police talk about war on drugs. America has a 100 billion dollar market a thirst for drugs so there will be drugs be drugs it's that simple. We need to focus on markets that shouldn't exist like human trafficking Or fraud
Great story 👌
Xwedé bless Jack London...great author.. Everyone should read him...
Fishy that the bank decided not to try and collect the debt.
What a wild story.
not the first and definetely not the last owner from that country, sorting out his finansials in such a manner. They are famous with their faked disasters in a industry.
You mean the Greeks are famous as frauds?
Wow, that's a lot of cargo. A typical Target sells $50 million worth of stuff in a year, or around $1 million a week.
Very interesting report, very interested in anything Maritime, this report is really interesting reality. 👍🇬🇧🇬🇧🇬🇧
This should be made into a story.
I worked on cargo ships and oil tankers as a stewardess{in Scandinavian ships} This was prior to Somalian pirates. It was interesting to arrive at a new place constantly. Thieves tried to get on board now and then in the Malacca straight. They just stole the steward's Swedish winter uniforms.
U sound like you had a part in this
"Look at me. I am the Captain Now"
Fascinating story…well told, thank you
The love of money is the root of all kinds of evils.
Fascinating.
Great video
After my experience working as anesthesiologist, I was taught that the surgeon was totally in charge. First off, I was reminded that the patients are not mine and if the patient dies, everything was my fault. Ask any MD “biggest mistake in my life “.
that's horrible because i know of people going for surgery with almost certainly peak addiction levels of opioids (and the related 'cuts' found in such street supplies) eg: large qty of 'benzos' or the like
What about the security detail on the boat? Why should the two men watching aboard the ship be afraid?After all,security was present.
I recommend the book highly - "Dead in the Water".