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

by Matthew Campbell

When the lawsuit over the Michael’s insurance policy came to trial, however, the shipowner’s legal team didn’t dispute that it had been scuttled. Instead, they argued, the cause of the sinking was “barratry,” an obscure term for an offense committed by a captain or crew without an owner’s knowledge. Komiseris, they said, had downed the ship to spite the owner, Nestor Pierrakos, over a long-standing personal grievance. Pierrakos was called to court to defend himself. Like many wealthy Greeks, he’d been educated at elite institutions in England, and wore a Cambridge University tie as he testified, indignantly, that he’d never do something so grubby as scuttling a ship. The judge believed him. “No one decides to scuttle a ship lightly; there are too many risks of failure or blackmail or both,” he wrote in his decision. Since barratry was covered by the Michael’s policy, the Lloyd’s insurers were obligated to pay. By establishing a high legal bar for rejecting claims, the ruling made it even harder for the London market to fight suspected fraud. It wasn’t enough for insurers to prove that a vessel had been deliberately wrecked. They also had to prove the owner was directly responsible. Baker-Harber never saw Komiseris again. Pierrakos lost a couple more ships in unfortunate circumstances, then became an insurance broker himself.