Dead in the Water: Murder and Fraud in the World's Most Secretive Industry

by Matthew Campbell

The quantum trial, which was held in November and December 2014, ended with a decisive defeat for the underwriters. In a decision handed down the following January, the judge, Julian Flaux, ruled that even though it hadn’t sunk as a result of the attack, the Brillante had been rendered a “constructive total loss.” As far as the legal system was concerned, it would be treated as though it were on the bottom of the ocean, irretrievable. Flaux said he was unimpressed by the allegations made by the insurers up to that point, including that Iliopoulos and his agents had exaggerated the Brillante’s damage and what it would cost to repair, and racked up unnecessary expenses along the way. Those were small-fry arguments, given the scale of what had occurred, and Flaux seemed to sense that the insurers were holding back. Once, during the court proceedings, he’d observed that they were “willing to wound, yet afraid to strike.” The ruling meant that if Iliopoulos prevailed in the second trial, which would decide what caused the fire on the Brillante and who was to blame, the firms that insured the tanker stood to lose as much as $85 million. That would be a very large bill, even at Lloyd’s—and Veale and Conner believed it gave them an opening. The detectives argued that it was time for the insurers to finally get aggressive, by filing a civil fraud case and doing everything they could to help the police pursue Iliopoulos criminally. They still met resistance.