MOSCOW / DUBAI / LONDON (Reuters) – In the murky story of how a stash of highly explosive ammonium nitrate ended up on Beirut’s seafront, one thing is clear: no one has publicly come to claim it.
Many questions remain unanswered about last week’s massive fatal explosion in the Lebanese capital, but assets are one of the simplest to solve.
A transparent identity of ownership, that is, of a shipment as damaging as that that crossed the Rhosus with the Moldovan flag when it arrived in Beirut seven years ago, is essential for navigation, the key to securing and resolving disputes that arise.
But Reuters interviews and document searches in 10 countries seeking original ownership of the 2,750-tonne shipment revealed a complex history of lack of documentation, secrecy, and a network of hard-to-understand small businesses that dominate the world.
“The goods were transported from one country to another, and ended up in a third country without owning them. Why did they come here?” said Ghassan Hasbani, former Lebanese deputy prime minister and opposition figure.
All those connected to the shipment and interviewed through Reuters denied knowing the original owner of the shipment or refused to answer the question. Among those who said they did not know were the ship’s captain, the Georgian fertilizer manufacturer who produced the shipment and the African company that ordered it and said he had never paid for it.
The official edition of the Rhosus’ latest voyage describes his adventure as a series of unfortunate events.
Shipping records show that the shipment charged ammonium nitrate in Georgia in September 2013 and intended to deliver it to an explosives manufacturer in Mozambique. But before leaving the Mediterranean, the captain and two team members say that, through the Russian businessman they considered the de facto owner of the shipment, Igor Grechushkin, they were told to make an unscheduled stopover in Beirut and to send an additional cargo.
The Rhosus arrived in Beirut in November, but never left, and was embroiled in a legal dispute over non-payment prices and shipping defects. Creditors accused the legal owner of the shipment, indexed as a Panama-based company, of abandoning the shipment and then unloading it and placing it in a docked warehouse, according to official accounts.
The Beirut law firm representing creditors, Baroudi Associates, responded to requests to identify the original legal owner of the cargo. Reuters can play Grechushkin.
The empty shipment still sank where it was moored in 2018, according to Lebanese customs.
Rhosus’ most recent movements are under scrutiny after ammonium nitrate hit the warehouse chimney and exploded last week, killing at least 158 people, injuring thousands and leaving 250,000 homeless.
Among the questions still unanswered: who paid for ammonium nitrate and if they ever sought the shipment when the Rhosus was seized? What if not, Poker?
The cargo, packed in giant white bags, is worth about $700,000 at 2013 prices, according to an industry source.
Reuters research has generated many signs of caution.
According to foreign maritime conventions and certain national laws, advertising vessels must have insurance to cover situations such as environmental damage, death or injury from a shipwreck, spill or collision. However, the Rhosus was not insured, according to two resources close to the case.
The ship’s Russian captain, Boris Prokoshev, said by phone from his home in Sochi, Russia, that he had noticed a certificate of insurance, but that he could guarantee its authenticity.
Reuters was unable to download a copy of the ship’s documents.
The Mozambican company that ordered ammonium nitrate, Fobrica de Explosivos Moaambique (FEM), did not own the shipment at the time because it had agreed to pay only on delivery, according to its spokesman, Antonio Cunha Vaz.
The manufacturer was Georgian fertilizer manufacturer Rustavi Azot LLC, which has since disbanded. Its owner at the time, businessman Roman Pipia, told Reuters that he had lost the Rustavi ammonium nitrate plant in 2016. British court documents show that the company was forced through a creditor to sell its assets at auction that year.
The plant is now run by JSC Rustavi Azot, who also said he might not be kind to the cargo owner, according to the plant’s first existing deputy director, Levan Burdiladze.
The WEF stated that it had ordered shipping through an advertising company, Savaro Ltd, which has companies registered in London and Ukraine, but is now offline.
A to the London cope with of Savaro Ltd on Monday unveiled a semi-detached Victorian house, with a locked door and bars, near the elegant bars of Shoreditch. No one responded to the knocks on the door.
Reuters contacted Savaro Ltd’s UK-registered director Greta Bieliene, a Lithuanian in Cyprus. She refused to answer questions.
A source familiar with the inner workings of Savaro’s business said it promotes fertilizers from former Soviet states to consumers in Africa.
Ukrainian businessman Vladimir Verbonol is appointed director of Savaro in Ukraine, according to Ukrainian corporate database You Control. Reuters can simply tap Verbonol to comment.
As the pain and anger from the explosion turned into civil unrest in Beirut, there are signs that the investigation promised through the Lebanese government has already turned its attention to Rhosus and Grechushkin, the type of team that owns it.
A security source said Grechushkin had been questioned at his home in Cyprus last Thursday about the shipment. A spokesman for the Cypriot police said that one person, who he did appoint, had been questioned at the request of Interpol Beirut.
The Rhosus arrived in Beirut in November 2013 with a leak and in poor condition, Captain Prokoshev said. I’ve been in trouble before.
On 20 July, thirteen, 4 months before docking in Beirut, the shipment was stopped for thirteen days through the government of the port of Seville, Spain, after disorders were discovered, adding faulty doors, corrosion in deck and faulty auxiliary engines, according to shipment data. It resumed navigation after the Lloyd Maritime Inspection Company issued a certificate of construction protection for shipment, which would have involved an investigation into the vessel, according to the data.
Georgia-founded Maritime Lloyd inspector Teimuraz Kavtaradze, which is not among the largest and most widely used inspection companies, said it may not verify whether or not the company had provided inspection documents to Seville port officials. He said he worked for Maritime Lloyd in 2013, but that others and control had replaced him ever since.
Officials in the port of Seville were not available without delay for comment. The MoU in Paris, a framework of 27 maritime states under whose authority the detention was carried out, did not respond without delay to a request for comment.
Moldova, where the Rhosus is registered, indicates that the owner of the ship is Briarwood Corp, founded in Panama, as shown through a certificate of ownership noted through Reuters. Reuters was unable to promptly identify Briarwood Corp as a Panama-registered company. Panama’s maritime government did not respond without delay to requests for comment.
The ship’s charterer, Teto Shipping Ltd, was founded in the Marshall Islands and disbanded in 2014, according to International Registries, which says it supplies maritime registration to the Marshall Islands.
The captain provided Reuters with an email that they used for Teto Shipping, but requests for comments to it received no response. The captain stated that Grechushkin and Teto were the same entity.
Additional report through Michele Kambas in Nicosia and Limassol, Cyprus; Maria Tsvetkova and Polina Devitt in Moscow, Victoria Waldersee in Lisbon, Tsvetelia Tsolova in Sofia, Margarita Antidze in Tbilisi, Tom Perry in Beirut, Alexander Tanas in Chisinau, Elida Moreno in Panama City, Guy Faulconbridge and Luke Baker in London, Nathan Allen in Madrid; Editing through Mark Bendeich and Nick Tattersall
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