Fraudulent Yacht Shippers

What negative comments? Just like likes can be purchased (cheaply) negative comments can be expunged. If you remember the subway bread yoga mat scare in the last couple of years the blogger who did that has a team of moderators that just go out and find people who they think might cause problems in the future and bans them preemptively. With a scam artist who has relatively little reach and exposure someones chances of finding out about them before it's too late are still pretty slim. Con men are in the business of coning people because it's a sustainable business for them so long as they manage to stay out of jail.

So much for the relevance of the associations that they belong to:
Federal Marine Commission, Interstate Commerce Commission, U.S Department of Transport etc. etc.
It seems a very clear case of fraud, hard to understand these guys are getting away with it.
If this an example of how much power the law has in Florida, especially after having shipped a number of boats from the US, then this story is a concern and wake up call.

First, this story is a bit old and the leading culprit is no longer in business. That was Yacht Path. This isn't a matter of Florida or any specific laws as these issues arose worldwide. They were freight forwarders throughout the world. They don't pay, shipper holds goods, bankruptcy. This is by no means something limited to yacht shipments.

Much of it is a matter of carefully reviewing all contracts, bonds, insurance and selecting the company you deal with carefully. There were ripoff reports against Yacht Path and Cummings as long ago as 2011. One dispute you might think was a customer issue, but the same reports over and over tells you. They were less expensive than their competition though and people chose price.

Belonging to organizations is simple. But they owned no vessels, they had a bad history, and they were known locally as having problems paying their bills. Unfortunately, crooks get away with such all the time. Should there have been fraud charges? In my opinion, yes, but then I'm not the prosecutor who has to prove fraud instead of just incompetency.

Does the risk exist today? Yes. Anytime you pay in advance for a service, risk exists. They require your insurance. You need to ask for theirs. One of the current shippers now shows proof the freight charges have been paid in full. I do not know if they consistently do that or not as I haven't used them.