Cape Breton Post

In search of answers

Who owned the chemicals that blew up Beirut?

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In the murky story of how a cache of highly explosive ammonium nitrate ended up on the Beirut waterfront, one thing is clear -- no one has publicly come forward to claim it.

Clear identifica­tion of ownership, especially of a cargo as dangerous as that carried by the Moldovan-flagged Rhosus when it sailed into Beirut seven years ago, is fundamenta­l to shipping, the key to insuring it and settling disputes that often arise.

But Reuters interviews and trawls for documents across 10 countries in search of the original ownership of this 2,750-tonne consignmen­t instead revealed an intricate tale of missing documentat­ion, secrecy and a web of small, obscure companies.

“Goods were being transporte­d from one country to another, and they ended up in a third country with nobody owning the goods. Why did they end up here?” said Ghassan Hasbani, a former Lebanese deputy prime minister and opposition figure.

Those linked to the shipment and interviewe­d by Reuters all denied knowledge of the cargo’s original owner or declined to answer the question.

The official version of the Rhosus’ final journey depicts its voyage as a series of unfortunat­e events.

Shipping records show the ship loaded ammonium nitrate in Georgia in September 2013 and was meant to deliver it to an explosives maker in Mozambique. But before leaving the Mediterran­ean, the captain and two crew members say they were instructed by the Russian businessma­n they regarded as the ship’s de facto owner, Igor Grechushki­n, to make an unschedule­d stop in Beirut and take on extra cargo.

The Rhosus arrived in Beirut in November 2013 but never left, becoming tangled in a legal dispute over unpaid port fees and ship defects. Creditors accused the ship’s legal owner, listed as a Panama-based firm, of abandoning the vessel and the cargo was later unloaded and put in a dockside warehouse, according to official accounts.

The Beirut law firm that acted for creditors, Baroudi & Associates, did not respond to requests to identify the cargo’s original legal owner. Reuters was unable to contact Grechushki­n.

The empty ship eventually sank where it was moored in 2018, according to Lebanese customs.

The Rhosus’ final movements are under fresh scrutiny after the ammonium nitrate caught fire inside the warehouse and exploded last week, killing at least 158 people, injuring thousands and leaving 250,000 people homeless.

Among the still-unanswered questions: who paid for the ammonium nitrate and did they ever seek to reclaim the cargo when the Rhosus was impounded? And if not, why not?

The cargo, packaged in large white sacks, was worth around $700,000 at 2013 prices, according to an industry source.

UNINSURED

Under internatio­nal maritime convention­s and some domestic laws, commercial vessels must have insurance to cover events such as environmen­tal damage, loss of life or injury caused by a sinking, spill or collision. Yet the Rhosus was uninsured, according to two sources.

The ship’s Russian captain, Boris Prokoshev, said by phone from his home in Sochi, Russia, that he had seen an insurance certificat­e but could not vouch for its authentici­ty. Reuters was unable to obtain a copy of the ship’s documents.

The Mozambican firm that ordered the ammonium nitrate, Fábrica de Explosivos Moçambique (FEM), was not the cargo owner at the time because it had agreed to only pay on delivery, according to spokesman Antonio Cunha Vaz.

The producer was Georgian fertilizer maker Rustavi Azot LLC, which has since been dissolved. Its owner at the time, businessma­n Roman Pipia, told Reuters he had lost control of the Rustavi ammonium nitrate plant in 2016. UK court documents show that the firm was forced by a creditor to auction off its assets that year.

The factory is now run by another firm, JSC Rustavi Azot, which also said it could not shed light on the cargo owner.

FEM said it had ordered the shipment through a trading firm, Savaro Ltd, which has registered companies in London and Ukraine but whose website is now offline. A source familiar with the inner workings of Savaro’s trading business said it sold fertilizer from ex-Soviet Union states to clients in Africa. No Savaro contacts responded to interview requests.

OWNER?

As grief and anger over the blast turn to civil unrest in Beirut, there are signs the Lebanese government’s promised investigat­ion has already turned its sights back to the Rhosus and Grechushki­n, the man the crew considered its owner.

A security source said Grechushki­n was questioned at his home in Cyprus last Thursday about the cargo. A Cypriot police spokesman said an individual, whom he did not name, had been questioned at the request of Interpol Beirut.

Moldova, where the Rhosus is registered, lists the owner of the ship as Panama-based Briarwood Corp, a certificat­e of ownership seen by Reuters shows. Reuters was not immediatel­y able to identify Briarwood Corp as a Panamanian registered company.

 ?? REUTERS ?? The site of the blast in Beirut’s port area on Aug. 8. The owners of the cache of explosive ammonium nitrate have not been identified.
REUTERS The site of the blast in Beirut’s port area on Aug. 8. The owners of the cache of explosive ammonium nitrate have not been identified.

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