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Ghost ship with three Guyanese owners registered in Latvia in Guyana waters

May 10, 2018 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Did you read my column yesterday? Well please read it and you will see why I am not going to name the three owners of the ship, Jubilee, that was caught with illegal fuel and was fined more than $30M by the GRA.
First, Mr. Godfrey Statia, boss of the GRA, is quoted in this newspaper as saying that Statia would only confirm that the fine was paid.
From that line, I gathered that Statia isn’t going to give out any more information. I called Mr. Statia’s cell phone several time using an unlisted number thinking he may feel that it is one of the kings and queens in the corridors of power and would answer.
Let me digress just briefly. Most police stations have the private cell numbers of the most senior officers in that particular division. They are listed on the wall. If police officers can have their numbers printed for the public to see why not senior public managers.
The fact that Mr. Statia will not give out more information must be added to the fact that I called the Director-General of the maritime administration (MARAD), Claudette Rogers, requesting the names of the owners of the Jubilee. She said she cannot give out that information.
I told her I was in my right to ask for the details because of the illegal quicksand that the ship was grounded in. She responded that she would have to get permission from either one of the two Ministers in the Ministry of Public Works (oops, sorry Public Infrastructure).
I was just baiting Ms. Rogers. I knew everything about the vessel and the company that owns it. Two of the three owners are not “hi and right” friends, not just ordinary friends but two gentlemen that I consider good friends. I don’t think either of them would refuse me a request if it is in their capacity to do. But I have never asked for anything for all the years I have known them.
One I have known as a friend for over thirty years now. He is financially very sound but I have never made a request for anything from except three CDs from his brother who was abroad. That was about 20 years ago. The other gentleman asked me when I was in his office, if I had use for a computer monitor he had discarded. My monitor was not working at the time, so I took it. I am using it at the moment. Until that ship with its illegal fuel was arrested by the GRA, I never knew those two friends of mine were so rich as to own a ship.
So why am I not publishing the name of the company and the identity of the owners? Because of what I wrote about libel in my column yesterday. My two friends will not sue me if I name them. This I am absolutely certain about. But the third owner from Bel Air Park off Vlissengen Road is someone I absolutely don’t know.
If I publish his name, who is to stop him from saying to hell with Freddie Kissoon and Kaieteur News? I am not going down that road because when the case comes up, Rogers and Statia in open court will not disclose the company’s name and identify the owners. So Kaieteur News and I will end up paying the man from Bel Air Park, a billion dollars. Not me!
In obligation to my journalistic career and in obligation to those who have asked me to divulge details, here is what I am prepared to say. The company is named after the first letter of the last name of the three owners. In relation to my two friends, the first letter in the last name of one of them is S and the other is F. The one with 24, 000 shares is S and F has 6000 shares. The guy from Bel Air Park has 24, 000 shares.
The company was registered on April 26, 2016 in Georgetown, Guyana, number 8367. It entered the next month, May 24, into an agreement for its business to be managed by a company in Latvia, a country in Eastern Europe. That company’s name is SIA Regulus. Its address is in the capital of Latvia – 11 Kugu Street LV 1048.
The manager of SIA Regulus is Alexander KIimenskiy. The legal name of the Guyanese ship is MT- Bornova/ Jubilee. The local company is located on the street I was born on. I hope this column here does not jeopardize my long standing friendship with these two gentlemen. But I am surprised that they are so rich. Buy me a car guys!

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