A bulker from the fleet of SAM Shipping has escaped from pirates only to fall into the hands of creditors at Singapore this week.
The 57,200-dwt bulker Sam Jaguar (built 2013) was arrested on 23 March. The ship had arrived in Singapore earlier in the week right after it was attacked in the Singapore Strait by a gang of Indonesian armed robbers, who were subsequently apprehended by the Indonesian Navy.
TradeWinds was unable to ascertain whether the Sam Jaguar’s call at Singapore was in connection with the piracy attempt, but nevertheless lawyers for mortgagee Credit Suisse AG were ready and waiting with an arrest warrant for a claim totalling $771,000.
Sam Jaguar makes the fourth in a series of ships that trade and finance creditors of SAM Shipping have now arrested over their outstanding claims.
Two arrested in Singaore over the past two weeks are directly owned by the company, including SAM Jaguar. A third is allegedly still owned by the company despite having passed through the hands of several Liberian shell companies in recent years.
A fourth is now in its seventh month under arrest at the Texas port of Corpus Christi. TradeWinds reported in October on the action by Maltese trade finance bank FIMBank.
The arresting spree in Singapore began on 13 March when Greek crew management services company Epsilon Hellas (Overseas) Ltd had the 52,500-dwt bulker Nord (built 2003) arrested over an unpaid $220,000 bill for services rendered.
Nord was SAM Shipping's Sam Tiger until January 2016, when it became the Nika under the ownership of a Liberian single ship entity called Discover Investment Corp. In June 2019 it moved across to another Liberian entity, Anchor Nautical SA, who renamed it Nord.
Legal claims against Nord have followed it across its various ownerships and names. A case search in the High Court of Singapore revealed that in May 2019, shortly before the ship moved to Anchor Nautical, Maltese trade finance company FIMbank filed a breach of contract claim against it.
Lawyers representing the vessel interests have argued in the parallel Texas case that Discover Investment and Anchor Nautical are not controlled or have anything in common with SAM Shiping, which FIMBank alleges is the case.
More recently, Enma Limited Corp, a marine lubricants company, filed a $43,300 claim against the NORD, while bunker supplier OV Limited joined the proceedings with a $403,000 claim for unpaid bunkers. These three cases are still pending.
On 14 March, the day after the Nord arrest, Enma moved to arrest the 57,200-dwt bulker Sam Wolf (built 2012) in an attempt to obtain payment for lubricants totalling of a mere $90,000.
By Friday afternoon the claims against the Nord and Sam Wolf had satisfied sufficiently for the arrest warrants against them to be listed. The Sam Jaguar remained under arrest.
The three Singapore arrests were not SAM Shipping's first brush with arrests. Its 32,600-dwt bulker Sam Eagle has been tied up in a legal battle brought on by FIMBank in a court in Corpus Christi since the ship arrived in the US port city’s anchorage on 13 September 2019.
As TradeWinds reported last year, FIMBank's arrest of Sam Eagle is over its allegations that the Nord, now under arrest by other parties in Singapore, was improperly transferred to avoid FIMBank's claims in a cargo dispute.
Other bulkers controlled by SAM Shipping appeared to still be trading this week. The 57,200-dwt Sam Hawk (built 2013) was en route to Mundra, while the 33,400-dwt Sam Panther (built 2010) was in the Red Sea on a voyage from Novorossiysk to Surabaya.
The 57,200-dwt Sam Lion (built 2012) was in the Andaman Sea heading to Singapore.
SAM Shipping has operated under a series of names since it was founded in Switzerland in 2009 with chartering veteran Geert Descheermaeker as chief executive officer.
Corporate documents show that Shipping Asset Management SA changed its name to SAM Shipping and then to Compagnie Generale d'Affretement et Commerce Maritime SA before liquidating in 2014. At about the same time, a new Panama company called Shipping Asset Management (SAM) SA was set up, Descheermaeker left the company and was replaced by new chief executive officer Dennis Saevski, and management moved to the Piraeus offices of its technical manager, Venturi Fleet Management.
The defunct Compagnie Generale d'Affretement et Commerce Maritime SA lives on in some reference sources under the abbreviated name Commerce Maritime.
TradeWinds was unable to contact Venturi for comment.
