A FALSE certificate of registration for the St Maarten flag that is littered with spelling errors and ambiguities was issued four days ago to a 20-year-old tanker.

Lloyd’s List obtained a copy of the certificate after it was provided by purported new owners as evidence the vessel should no longer be considered as part of the Lloyd’s List *dark fleet.

The certificate for the tanker, formerly known as Cimarron (IMO: 9255933), shows that it was renamed Ocean Koi. The certificate was issued by International Maritime Registries & Regulatory Inc, which goes by the acronym of MSTA Registry, on December 14.

The company’s website claims it is based in Beverley Hills, California, with the telephone number provided answered by a real estate agent.

The certificate states it is from “St Maarten Islands” even though St Maarten Island is just one island. It also says it is issued by the “St Maarten Islands Maritime Administration”, while the seal at the bottom of the document references “St Maarten Island Maritime Administration”.

The ship is “registered under guidelines provided and acepted (sic)”, the certificate adds. The classification society is given as LUCDRA Class for which no recognised organisation can be determined.

The 72,735 dwt tanker is now at the Zhejiang Haizhou shipyard at Zhoushan port in China, and doesn’t appear to have left Chinese waters in at least 12 months, vessel tracking shows.

In the past five years it has been flagged with Palau, Comoros, Panama, Tanzania and Cameroon. Cameroon was the most recent flag.

The new owners are provided as Xiang Hang Marine, incorporated in the Marshall Islands. There is a company by this name in that country’s registrar, showing it was incorporated in August 2023.

The Dutch ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management and the government of St. Maarten were aware of the fraudulent certificates and were looking into ways to counteract them, a spokesman from the ministry told Lloyd’s List.

There are currently 12 ships now showing as falsely flagged with St Maarten in the International Maritime Organization database, Lloyd’s List research shows. All were flagged by the MSTA-Registry between August and December, with most being sanctioned vessels.

Cimarron is the latest ship detected.

“St Maarten does not have an international flag registry for freighters, only for smaller pleasure crafts,” the spokesman said. 

“St Maarten did not authorise, appoint or designate any organisation or country to issue any documents, certificates or credentials on its behalf.”

The Netherlands planned to contact the US government over the issue, as the company issuing the fake certificates claimed to be American, he said.

The ministry has also contacted the IMO and port state control to let them know the certificates were fraudulent.

Cimarron is one of the 670 tankers defined as being part of the dark fleet under Lloyd’s List methodology. Further documentation provided to Lloyd’s List which cannot be verified claims the vessel was sold on November 24 to the new Chinese owners.

* Lloyd’s List defines a tanker as part of the dark fleet if it is aged 15 years or over, anonymously owned and/or has a corporate structure designed to obfuscate beneficial ownership discovery, solely deployed in sanctioned oil trades, and engaged in one or more of the deceptive shipping practices outlined in US State Department guidance issued in May 2020. The figures exclude tankers tracked to government-controlled shipping entities such as Russia’s Sovcomflot, or Iran’s National Iranian Tanker Co, and those already sanctioned.

Download our explainer on the different risk profiles of the dark fleet here