Search Results for: "Royal Caribbean"

  • News

Fuel scammer sent to slammer

According to statements made in a plea agreement, Jamil Murni, 60, of Houston, Texas,was a fuel buyer for Royal Caribbean. In that position, he was responsible for researching suppliers and negotiating price, availability, and delivery schedules of fuel for Royal Caribbean Cruises’ fleet.

Muni was arrested in Houston in February on an indictment charging him with nine counts of wire fraud, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1343, and one count of money laundering, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1957.

According to the plea agreement, in 2003, Murni registered “Sea Fuels Trading” as a fictitious name with the Florida Department of State’s Division of Corporations. He then opened and maintained a bank account in the name of Sea Fuels Trading. On December 19, 2003, Murni applied to have Sea Fuels Trading become a fuel provider for Royal Caribbean. In that application, defendant Murni fraudulently concealed his ownership of the company. Royal Caribbean subsequently approved Sea Fuels Trading as a fuel vendor.

Murni used his position within Royal Caribbean to obligate the cruise company to more expensive contracts with Sea Fuels Trading. Defendant Murni then fulfilled Sea Fuels Trading’s obligations by purchasing cheaper fuel from competitors. Royal Caribbean paid defendant Murni’s company more than it would have paid to a legitimate fuel vendor.

According Wifredo A. Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, and John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, FBI Miami Field Office, Muni operated the scam from late 2003 through late 2006.

At the sentencing on November 1, 2010 in Miami, U.S. District Court Judge Joan A. Lenard sentenced Murni to 45 months of imprisonment, to be followed by two years of supervised release. In addition, the judge ordered that the defendant pay $610,228 in restitution to Royal Caribbean.

  • News

Why the ship didn’t hit the span

Reading some of the press coverage you might think that the giant cruise ship had actually scraped the bridge.

Here’s one example of the coverage the effort earned:

“A Royal Caribbean European cruise ship barely escaped what could have been an unfortunate accident Saturday, narrowly avoiding a bridge in Denmark by mere inches.”

And another.

The Royal Caribbean cruise ship Allure of the Seas barely made it under Denmark’s Storebelt Bridge on Saturday. The crew and passengers applauded as the ship finally cleared the bridge with barely a foot to spare.

Of course, the giant Royal Caribbean ship was designed to safely pass under the bridge  on its passage from STX Finland to its homeport in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

A Royal Caribbean video clip explains how you get a ship that normally has a height above the waterline of about 73 meters (240 feet) under a bridge offering a clearance of 65 m (213 ft).

   

 

Why the ship didn’t hit the span

Reading some of the press coverage you might think that the giant cruise ship had actually scraped the bridge.

Here’s one example of the coverage the effort earned:

“A Royal Caribbean European cruise ship barely escaped what could have been an unfortunate accident Saturday, narrowly avoiding a bridge in Denmark by mere inches.”

And another.

The Royal Caribbean cruise ship Allure of the Seas barely made it under Denmark’s Storebelt Bridge on Saturday. The crew and passengers applauded as the ship finally cleared the bridge with barely a foot to spare.

Of course, the giant Royal Caribbean ship was designed to safely pass under the bridge  on its passage from STX Finland to its homeport in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

A Royal Caribbean video clip explains how you get a ship that normally has a height above the waterline of about 73 meters (240 feet) under a bridge offering a clearance of 65 m (213 ft).

   

  • Blogs

Cruising: New Ships and New Thinking

Now there are signs that new players are eyeing the market.

One is Trondheim, Norway, entrepreneur Olav Norum. He is putting together a venture called Project Vision Quest that intends to target the U.S. market for conferences at sea with three 273 m long, 70,000 gt , 1,200 passenger ships developed in cooperation with Aker Finnyards Technology. The price tag of each ship would be around Euros 390 million (about $510 million). Plans are for the first ship to be delivered in 2007.

Facilities aboard each ship would include conference seating for 1,300 people, with some 3,500 square meter of convertible exhibition/conference space.

So if Norum builds these ships, will people come? Vision Quest only needs to capture a tiny percentage of the U.S. conference market in order to fill the ships. In the past the issue of U.S. tax deductibility of conference expenses aboard foreign ships has been one argument used in favor of building U.S.-flag cruise ships. Norum says he is aware of the issue, but that the much lower cost of staging an event on board an internationally flagged vessel would more than offset the tax savings in question.