Transat Story (uncut) - Part V

SWALLOW SHIPPING LIMITED (SSL).

Around 1996/7

It was becoming obvious that as 95% or so of the seafarers put on board for Briese/Leda/ESC were sourced in Russia, and then more specifically St.Petersburg, that an in house manning agency might be desirable. The manning agency in St Peterburg (Northwestern Transport) that was mainly used by Leda Shipping to find its crewmembers was made an offer and ‘taken over’ –  by Leda Shipping.  Ronald Bilski from Leda was designated to oversee the process.  The original directors Vladimir Arteemev and Vladimir Kommisarov became minority shareholders 25%+25%, Ronald Bilski also 25%. Remaining 25% - I?? perhaps Peter Coleridge

                                           

The new company was called SWALLOW SHIPPING LIMITED (SSL).

The company would source crew EXCLUSIVELY for Briese/Leda (and also therefore for ESC and later ITCC).  Funding for the new venture, new offices, office furniture, computers, admin costs came from principally from cash reserves generated by ESC.  There was always some confusion about Ronald Bilski’s exact involvement as he believed that his shareholding was his personally, whereas others were under the impression that he was holding it ‘in trust’ fro Roelf Briese.  In any case no personal funding from Ronald .ever went into the venture.

Eventually Mr Bilski fell out with Mr Colerdige and Mr Briese (over certain (false) accusations leveled at him originally by Mr Colerdige), and was unceremoniously forced out of Leda Shipping and obliged to sell his shareholding in SSL to Mr Coleridge.  Again most thought that this was in trust for Mr Briese, but by a few years later even Mr Briese himself wasn’t to know who held what and for whom, as he would eventually pay Mr Coleridge to gain a 51% stake in SSL.

Meantime SSL was run along the same lines as ESC.  There was the official Russian SSL which was ‘simply a branch administration office’, and there was a St Kitts and Nevis IBC managed in Monaco. So all the sales invoicing for SSL manning fees for crew placed, and receiving, booking and paying of these by the client ESC, was therefore dealt with totally internally in Monaco between the two Nevis companies.  When in fact it should really have been invoiced by the Russian company to Leda Shipping or the individual Briese vessel owning companies.

GLOBE TRAVEL LIMITED

At the same approximate time as the development of SSL, perhaps a little after…

With Mr Bilski going or gone, Mr Coleridge was more and more often in StP.  He had taken over Mr Bilski’s Shareholding and was now the ‘figurehead’ Boss of SSL.  It was not desirable at this point for anyone to think that Mr Briese might be personally involved in the operation. This suited Mr Coleridge personally very well as he had a handful of ‘private clients’ for which he ran offshore company bank accounts in Monaco and he could use a trip up to the StP office of SSL to also distribute mail (usually bank statements, credit cards, or even cash) for his own private affairs. His travel expenses and daily allowance being invoiced by him to ESC (later ITCC)  - which he also managed, but for RBriese - directly upon his return to the Monaco office. 

With all of these seafarers being sourced from the StP Office focus was eventually puit on the airfares that Briese/Leda/ESC were having to pay?  Originally all flight bookings for the crew were made by the Leda operators in Leers to large well established travel agents such as Neckermann in Holland, or Griffin Marine Travel. Even local agents in Leer were used on occasions.  More and more air tickets were being put through the Lufthansa office in StP. Eventually the office manager of the Lufthansa office was poached to work for an in-house ticketing operation that would be named Globe Travel Ltd.  Usual set up – Globe Travel Ltd (GTL), a Nevis IBC ‘managed’ in Monaco, with the StP operation being declared simply as an administrative branch. With the knowledge and experience of the new recruit from Lufthansa, IATA accreditation for ticket reservations was applied for and gained.

Once again the majority of the invoicing simply passed from one desk to another in Monaco – if that.  Invoices would be issued from GTL to ESC, printed off, input as sales in GTL’s ledgers, then second copies would be the ‘purchase invoices of ESC and input in the payables ledger.  The real trade of course being the sale of an air ticket by a company in StP, Russia to a crew manager in Germany.  Mr Coleridge always played his cards very close to his chest on the subject of GTL.  He would often say that he held it on behalf of Roelf Briese but no one was ever sure that he hadn’t in fact set up the whole operation for his own benefit.

GTL’s turnover is in the region of USD 2.000.000 pa, making slightly less than USD200K profit. (USD166.000 in 2009)