The Lip News
Episode 86
True Pirates + the Repo Men of the Seas with the NYT’s Ian Urbina
Maritime “repo men” are used as a last resort when recovering ships and cargo from dangerous pirates in foreign harbors on the behalf of banks, insurers and shipowners. New York Times journalist Ian Urbina details the Somalian piracy model as well as modern white collar piracy and the obstacles encountered by the repo men who risk their lives to recover stolen ships in this Lip News interview hosted by Margaret J. Howell.
Episode Breakdown
00:01 Welcoming to the Lip.
00:16 How fleets are stolen.
01:33 Crimes of the phantom fleet.
03:52 Maritime repo men, extraction jobs and prostitutes.
07:23 Payments, bounties and risk.
09:33 Jurisdiction and litigation.
12:25 Ego and employment.
14:30 Thank you and goodbye.
Guest Bio
Before joining The New York Times, Ian Urbina was in a doctoral program in history and anthropology at the University of Chicago, where he specialized on Cuba. As a Fulbright scholar he did his doctoral dissertation research in Havana. He left the doctoral program early to join the Times in 2003. Mr. Urbina is currently an investigative correspondent for the Washington Bureau of The New York Times. Previously, he was a reporter on the Times Metro desk. In 2005, he became national desk’s mid-Atlantic bureau chief, where he covered the West Virginia coal mining disasters, the Gulf oil spill, the Virginia Tech shootings and various other breaking stories.He was a member of the team of reporters that broke the story about then-New York Governor, Eliot Spitzer and his use of prostitutes, a series of stories for which the Times won a Pulitzer in 2009.
Hosts
Lissette Padilla
Mark Sovel
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