New Diamond disaster: GAC Shipping Limited denies receiving USD 5 mn compensation

Refuting claims made by NPP MP Vijitha Herath in Parliament yesterday, GAC Shipping Limited said it did not receive any amount of compensation for the incident involving MT New Diamond.

In a statement, GAC Shipping Limited said it was appointed as agents for New Shipping Limited - Greece, the ship owners/ managers of the vessel MT New Diamond ("Principals") and also acted in the capacity of local correspondents for the Protection and Indemnity Club holding the owner's entry of the vessel, consequent to MT New Diamond catching fire off the western coast of Sri Lanka on 3 September 2020. 

"GAC Shipping Limited acted as Agents to attend to all the shipping service requirements of the distressed vessel and we received a legal and justifiable remuneration for the shipping agency services that we provided to our Principals. We did not receive USD 5 million or any other amount ... 'as part payment of the compensation for the New Diamond disaster had been transferred to an overseas account ... ' as stated by NPP MP Vijitha Herath. Our company GAC Shipping Limited does not have any account with Union Bank in Sri Lanka.

"We are a reputed company operating in Sri Lanka since 1993 and our foreign partner operates in more than 300 offices worldwide. The several factual inaccuracies in the aforesaid statement are harmful to our goodwill and reputation not only in Sri Lanka but also around the world. We categorically deny that not only between January and May 2022, but we have never received a sum of USD 5 million from 'German Deutsch Bank' to the 'account of GAC Shipping Ltd at Union Bank in Sri Lanka on behalf of the Singaporean Company called Smith', during any time," the statement said.