ICCSL, Shippers’ Academy seminar on maritime crime and trade malpractices

International Chamber of Commerce Sri Lanka (ICCSL) in association with Shippers’ Academy Colombo will hold a certified full day seminar on July 5 titled ‘Maritime Crime and Trade Malpractices’ at Taj Samudra Hotel.

It will be presented by P. Mukundan, Director International Maritime Bureau – London.

Topics covered will include trade finance frauds; risks to buyers and sellers; risks to banks, insurance companies money laundering in trade finance; sanctions and its responsibilities; cargo and insurance fraud & container crime; deviation of vessels, losses of cargo, charter party failures, BLs and frauds; piracy and phantom ships; and problems of Somalia and the hijacking of vessels

Mukundan, after an initial career at sea, completed his Ship Master’s Certificate of Competency Class 1 from Southampton in the UK. He completed a BSc (Hons) degree in Nautical Studies at Plymouth, UK and a Master of Business Administration at the Cranfield School of Management in the UK.

In 1981 he joined the newly formed ICC international Maritime Bureau (IMB) as an investigator. He has investigated numerous maritime insurance claims including many fraud cases from charter party failures, diversion of cargoes, phantom ships, hijackings and container theft.

He has written many papers on fraud and malpractice in shipping and trading, given expert and factual testimony in civil and criminal cases around the world.

He became the Assistant Director at the IMB in 1987, Director in 1996 and Director/CEO of its holding body ICC Commercial Crime Services in 1999. He is a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the World Maritime University’s Journal of Maritime Affairs.

The IMB acts as a focal point for the industry in respect of trade fraud and believes that the prompt dissemination of relevant information is a key to successful prevention and control. It has amongst its members many of the world’s largest banks, insurance companies, shipping companies and traders. The IMB runs the Piracy Reporting Centre which is one of the major providers of information on piracy attacks to the world.