API Tanker Conference Piracy Session
May 21, 2012
Provided by:
John D. Kimball
Blank Rome LLP
+1.212.885.5259
[email protected]
Chart showing ransoms paid each year to Somali pirates
Source: Report from Foreign Affairs Committee, House of Commons, January 5, 2012
Statement of Andrew J. Shapiro
Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Political-Military Affairs
Department of State
March 27, 2012
The U.S. government is acutely aware of the dilemma that ship
owners face when ships and sailors are taken hostage. While the
safety of the crew is critical, we must all acknowledge that
submitting to pirate ransom demands only ensures that future crews
will be taken hostage. The United States has a long tradition of
opposing the payment of ransom, and we have worked diligently to
discourage or minimize ransom payments. While some may
consider this the cost of doing business, every ransom paid further
institutionalizes the practice of hostage-taking for profit and
promotes its expansion as a criminal enterprise. We strongly
encourage flag States, shipowners and private parties involved in
hostage crises to seek assistance from appropriate U.S. government
sources in their crisis management procedures.
Intervention by Secretary of State Clinton
at London Conference on Somalia 2/23/12
Third, we must continue to fight piracy, which is still rampant off Somalia's
shores . . . And we welcome the UK's initiative to create an international
task force to discourage the payment of ransoms to pirates and other
groups to eliminate the profit motive and prevent the illicit flow of money
and its corrosive effects.
Statement of Prime Minister Cameron at
London Conference on Somalia 2/23/12
Let’s create an international taskforce on ransoms.
And let’s set the ultimate ambition of stopping
these payments because in the end they only
ensure that crime pays.
18 USC § 1202. Ransom money
(a) Whoever receives, possesses, or disposes of any money or other
property, or any portion thereof, which has at any time been delivered as
ransom or reward in connection with a violation of section 1201 of this
title, knowing the same to be money or property which has been at any
time delivered as such ransom or reward, shall be fined under this title or
imprisoned not more than ten years, or both. * * *
• (c) For purposes of this section, the term “State” has the meaning set forth
in section 245(d) of this title.
Conclusion
Questions?
John D. Kimball
Blank Rome LLP
The Chrysler Building
405 Lexington Avenue
New York, NY 10174-0208
Phone: +1.212.885.5259
Fax: +1.917.332.3730
Email: [email protected]
www.BlankRomeMaritime.com