U.S. authorities sold a seized Russian oil tanker to a maritime scrap dealer for well under market value in an “economically irrational” deal meant to thwart the owner’s bid to recover the vessel, the company lawyers said in court papers.
\n\nThe Justice Department was ordered to respond to the allegations, made by the ship’s Russian owner, Burevestmarin LLC, by 9 a.m. Friday.
\n\nThe tanker, Bella 1, was seized by the U.S. military in the North Atlantic in early January after a weekslong chase on the high seas. U.S. authorities said the ship, which they believed was carrying illegal Iranian oil, was caught fleeing an American blockade of Venezuela. Attorneys for Burevestmarin dispute the claim that the vessel was carrying Iranian oil.
\n\nThe ship was sold to a scrap dealer for $9.1 million, the company’s lawyers said, well below the $21 million that the Bella 1 would fetch as scrap metal alone.
\n\nEven a proper scrap metal price tag would understate its worth, they added, because the ship has “substantially greater value” as “an operating commercial vessel.”
\n\n“As discussed and previously briefed, the Government posits a world in which it can — while withholding notice to known interested parties and while…
Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/health