$25 million Refit of Yacht "Anodyne"

There will only be more brought to the surface and more people pulled into it as it proceeds. It's just getting started.

No, you just have to get a DA interested. That's difficult on something like this as they're not always too anxious to jump in or feel bad for people with hundreds of millions of dollars. A criminal case is expensive and they have to decide how they want to spend the money they have. That's why they'll often just leave this to civil court. Let the attorneys someone else is paying do the work. Now after the civil case they sometimes will file charges if the crime was proven.

Hmmmm, throw in a dead body and I've got myself a mystery novel.

The only mystery in this not so novel chapter is how it lasted so long. Why it lasted so long is easy to explain.

Maybe another great boating book to rival Grand Ambition.

You summed it up nearly 4 years ago in post #13.

There is an awfully familiar scent to this project ... and it isn't a pleasant one.

"There will only be more brought to the surface and more people pulled into it as it proceeds. It's just getting started."

I wonder if a separate lawsuit against one of the other major players is in the works. It looks like an opportunity to recover some of the money if there is any left.

One might wonder if there could be issues with mail fraud, bank fraud, tax evasion, and who knows what other RICO type stuff is waiting to be uncovered.

By now they must be strongly regretting filing the original suit that led to the countersuit.

I would think anyone who has seen their name in any of the documents would be worried about being sued and the deeper their pockets, the more like to be sued.

Your last paragraph, all the items listed. Tax Evasion is the easiest as you don't believe the individual has reported a line of income, "Bribes." All the benefits he got are clearly taxable. Prosecutors for other offenses are less likely to have interest in getting involved, but the IRS has no hesitancy in jumping in.

Now, RICO becomes interesting as generally it's used to get pleas to lesser crimes or civil settlements. There is both criminal and civil RICO. RICO used in civil court would serve two purposes. First, proving the existence of an enterprise and the ones "in charge" having issued orders or the knowledge of what was going on and the activities of the ones directly involved. So helpful in getting up a level in the chain. Second, RICO brings with it treble damages. That can turn a $5 million case into $15 million quickly. You hear RICO, you better start trying to settle.

Thanks for this recommendation, picked it up after seeing this post and it's a good read.

The things you read about in Grand Ambition happen every day, especially with under capitalized builders. Ponzi schemes are alive and well in boat building with deposits and advances on one boat used to pay to finish an earlier boat. Then there's the reporting a milestone event that earns payment when that point has not been reached. One very interesting read was from the Billing Clerk for Northern in her deposition.

We think of boat builders as big businesses. In the realm of big business, they are not. Even the largest become small subsidiaries of large Chinese Industrial companies.

One other thing to keep in mind. Many builders are owned by large companies or even venture capitalists. They are not building up cash reserves in the builder. Cash profits are going out to the owners. This means with the least hiccup, and definitely with a recession, they have serious cash flow issues. I know two small custom builders who were under severe threat when the EU put the tariff on inboard boats. Ultimately, they had to absorb some of it on boats in production in order to continue those builds and to not put their entire business at risk. To me, one of the measurements that many fail is an inability to afford their own largest boat.

One other comment. It's easy to get in the boat business, if you can sell. Sell an owner on the idea you can manage the rebuild of his yacht. Get his money, pay others to do the work, and it all works until you get near the end.

A lot of this is true in other industries. Many labels you think of as manufacturers don't actually own a single manufacturing facility. They're nothing but marketers and distributors.