Flags of Convenience

·25 min·2 clips

Tom Cardamone explains how ships turn off transponders to secretly transfer oil, evading sanctions.

The episode begins with host Alexandra Wrage introducing the topic of flags of convenience as an obscure but significant source of opacity in shipping. Guest Tom Cardamone, president of Global Financial Integrity, explains that every large ship must be registered under a country's flag, and about 40 countries offer open registries where the owner need not be based there. He notes that 30% of the world's 97,000 ships fly flags of convenience, primarily from Panama, Liberia, Marshall Islands, Malta, and the Bahamas. Cardamone highlights the absurdity of landlocked countries like Bolivia and Mongolia offering such registries. He discusses how flags of convenience reduce costs through low fees, taxes, and regulation, attracting operators who may ignore safety and worker rights. The conversation shifts to illicit activities enabled by this system, including sanctions busting where ships turn off transponders to transfer oil illegally, as seen with North Korea and Iran. Cardamone cites a case of a Liberian-flagged ship caught with a billion dollars in cocaine in Philadelphia. He also covers human trafficking and worker abandonment, where crews are stranded without pay or visas. Environmental harms from ship dismantling in Pakistan and India are mentioned, along with the Beirut explosion linked to a Moldovan-flagged ship. Cardamone connects flags of convenience to illegal fishing and counterfeit goods trade. To address these issues, he proposes a UN-managed global beneficial ownership registry for ships, requiring basic owner information. He suggests denying port entry to ships that don't provide this data and preventing transponders from being turned off. The host and guest discuss potential industry resistance, particularly from flag states like Panama that benefit from opacity, but also the possibility of reputable companies supporting transparency to improve the industry's reputation. The episode ends with Cardamone urging listeners to consider the connections between flags of convenience and various global issues.

As heard by us

A shipping registry rule reveals how opaque ownership can distance pollution, illicit trade, and accountability.

Flags of convenience turns ship registration into a clear case study in opacity and avoided accountability. Alexandra Raghi's conversation with Tom Cardamone, president and CEO of Global Financial Integrity, explains how open registries let a ship-owning company register a…

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You want to see how a ship's flag can hide accountability from ocean pollution to counterfeit goods.

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