Pictured Above: Guice Offshore mini supply vessel GO Seeker is U.S. Flagged and approved for international operations.
IMO Legal Committee approves first international guidelines to deter maritime fraud and misuse of flags.
The International Maritime Organization’s Legal Committee has approved a new set of guidelines to improve transparency and due diligence in ship registration, as well as prevent fraudulent registrations and misuse of flags.
The guidelines help to close a key regulatory gap for the maritime industry, given there is currently no binding international framework to regulate the registration of ships.
The newly approved Guidelines will assist new and existing flag State ship registries by providing practical measures to strengthen verification and due diligence, ensure accurate ownership records, and improve oversight of registration procedures.
Welcome step
Closing the 113th session of the Legal Committee held in London (13-17 April), IMO Secretary-General Mr. Arsenio Dominguez said:
“This is a welcome step towards ensuring due diligence in ship registration systems for the benefit of safety, protection of the marine environment and the well-being of seafarers, essential for the safety and security of international shipping. The Guidelines will also aid in eliminating cases of fraudulent registration.”
The Legal Committee noted that the number of ships flying a false flag had increased since the previous session in 2025, with 529 ships falsely flying the flag of a country in the past year. Nearly 40 Member States had seen cases of their flags being fraudulently used by criminal groups without their knowledge or consent.
The Guidelines focus on:
- Legislation governance and control on who can perform registration of ships
- Procedures for quality assurance in ship registration
- Due diligence on ownership and ship identification
- Due diligence on ship identity and eligibility checks
- Information sources and information sharing.
Fraudulent registration and fraudulent registries of ships
Fraudulent registration and related unlawful practices include the registration of vessels without the knowledge or approval of the relevant national maritime administration. Such fraudulent registrations are accomplished through a combination of tactics that may include the following:
- Terminated registry: where a vessel, formerly entitled to fly the flag of a given State, continues to fly that flag after the vessel’s registration with the flag State has expired or has otherwise been terminated.
- Fraudulent representations to IMO: the submission of fraudulent documentation to IMO, without the knowledge of the cognizant flag State authority, in order to obtain IMO documentation and ship identification numbers. Fraudulent registration companies may operate with authentic‑looking websites and claim to be the official registration offices authorized to grant to ships the nationality of the State concerned.
- Broadcasting falsified Automatic Identification System (AIS) data: this tactic involves the intentional manipulation of AIS data to materially alter the ship’s identifying information or to reflect the AIS data of an entirely different vessel.
There is currently no single specific international instrument or treaty that contains a standardized or universally accepted definition of “fraudulent ship registration”, though the 108th and 109th sessions of the Legal Committee agreed on the following definitions:
- Fraudulent registration of a ship means the intentional misrepresentation of information and documentation by which a ship is purportedly given its nationality without authorization by the Government of the misrepresented flag State.
- Fraudulent registry is an unauthorized body or entity that intentionally misrepresents that it is authorized, [at the relevant time,] for the registration of ships on behalf of the flag State.
- Forged/False document is any document, whether in electronic or paper format, that is:
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- forged or falsified to obtain or issue a ship registration certificate;
- a forged or falsified ship registration certificate; or
- issued based knowingly on the forged or falsified ship registration certificate.
In this context, the Organization has circulated communications received from States regarding the fraudulent registration of ships under their flags or the fraudulent operation of a registry associated with their country. These communications can be accessed from the right-hand column HERE.
To read more from the IMO on fraudulent registration of ships, click HERE.
