20 biggest scandals at sea

Mussolini's yacht seized from Mafia-linked businessman

Italian police have seized a classic sailing boat which once belonged to fascist dictator Benito Mussolini from a businessman with links to the Mafia. Black Flame was confiscated from Salvatore Squillante along with €28 million of assets including real estate, luxury cars and company shares.

The confiscation came after Squillante rented property to a firm owned by convicted murderer Salvatore Buzzi who was taped during an investigation in to the Capital Mafia saying the drug trade was proving less lucrative than schemes involving migrants. It is believed a pact may exist between Squillante and Buzzi's organised crime ring to defraud the Roman administration through contracts awarded to manage migrant reception.

Black Flame itself has a troubled history. One of the most amazing  superyachts given as gifts, it was presented to Mussolini by a fellow fascist friend but was sunk when the regime fell in 1943 to stop it passing into the hands of the Germans. It was later hauled out of the water and restored before being bought by Squillante through one of his companies.

28 people arrested for lewd behaviour on yacht

Twenty-eight people, including policemen and army personnel, were arrested in October 2014 for drinking, partying and having sex on a yacht in Dubai.

Police officers seized 101 bottles of alcohol, including vodka, beer and whisky during the early morning in Dubai Marina.

In April 2014 Dubai Misdemeanours Court convicted the 28 defendants of getting together on the yacht without being related to each other, inciting each other to commit sins by committing immoral practices and drinking alcohol and partying without being related to each other.

Two men and three women were originally handed a year-long jail term for having consensual sex out of wedlock but this was subsequently reduced to one month. The defendants lost an appeal yesterday (December 14) and will now serve their sentences.

The court also upheld the Dh2,000 fine (approximately $550 US) for the other party goers for incitement to commit indecent behaviour.

Picture courtesy of Mohamed Alwerdany/Shutterstock.com

Relatives of Venezuela’s first lady arrested for trafficking drugs on yacht

Police in the Dominican Republic raided 40.8 metre luxury yacht The Kingdom on November 11, 2015 finding 54 bricks of a substance believed to be cocaine or heroin.

The yacht was berthed at the Casa de Campo marina in La Romana and six people found on board were arrested. The raid was performed as part of an on-going investigation into Efrain Antonio Campo Flores and Francisco Flores de Freitas, the godson and nephew of Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores respectively, who were caught trying to make a drugs deal with an undercover agent in New York. All six suspects arrested were found to have connections to the pair.

Donald Crowhurt fakes log in Golden Globe round-the-world yacht race

Donald Crowhurst drowned, presumed suicide, while competing in the Sunday Times Golden Globe Race in 1969. The race was a non-stop, single-handed, round-the-world yacht race, which was the first of its kind. What makes this a scandal at sea is that when Crowhurt’s boat was found, it was uncovered that he had spent several months falsifying his position in radio reports and, far from sailing around the world, he had never left the Atlantic.

It seems that Donald Crowhurst, who was something of a fantasist but not an experienced sailor, bit off more than he could chew. Donald Crowhurst’s boat, Teignmouth Electron, was a 12 metre trimaran that was unproven on such long voyages, and he had only sailed her for a few weeks before leaving port, in which time he had fallen overboard several times. It was felt that when Crowhurst found he was not up to the task, he decided to hide in the South Atlantic, send fake radio reports of his location and falsify his logs before his return, rather than admit defeat and face financial ruin. As other competitors dropped out and Donald Crowhurst looked as if he might win on elapsed time (the field started on different dates), it is thought he panicked at the thought of a proper investigation and jumped overboard. The boat was found unoccupied 12 days after his last radio transmission. Examination of his logbooks revealed the deception. A film is in the works on this sad and scandalous yachting story, starring Colin Firth as Donald Crowhurst, and directed by James Marsh.

Did Patrick McDermott fake his own death?

Picture: Rex Features

File this one under unsolved mysteries: Patrick McDermott was accused of faking his own death after disappearing on a fishing trip off California in 2005, shortly after ending his nine-year relationship with Olivia Newton-John. Five years later it was claimed he was living in Mexico, but there is still no proof that Patrick McDermott is alive.

Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee’s sex tape

There are plenty of films featuring yachts, but one that most won’t quickly admit to seeing is the ever-so-scandalous “home movie” shot by the Baywatch babe Pamela Anderson and her rockstar husband Tommy Lee. The private honeymoon video features her husband using his manhood to steer the yacht, a feat not often seen on a typical day on the water. Well, depends who you sail with….

Mohamed Al-Fayed’s son keeps two lovers on different yachts

In order to keep a few lovers none the wiser, the son of Egyptian billionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed seemed to spend the summer of 1997 flitting between his fiancée on one family yacht and a new love on another. We hope he had a fast tender for a getaway boat once the jig was up.

Superyacht Savarona said to host wild sex parties

In 2010, police arrested 14 people on board Savarona, a superyacht that belonged to Kemal Ataturk, the Turkish leader, in the 1930s. Those arrested included businessmen and underage girls from Russia and Ukraine involved in a prostitution ring.

Stanford University president uses school funds on a yacht

The sea can teach a man a lot, but apparently higher education isn’t enough to protect a man from creating scandals at sea. The president of Stanford University in California had to resign in 1992 after an investigation found that, among other irregular pieces of accounting, academic research funding had been used to cover $184,000 of depreciation on a yacht. Not the most educated decision.

Peter Mandelson and George Osborne’s political showdown at sea

The problem with verbally attacking someone on a yacht is, if you’re at sea, you’re stuck adrift with said person until you reach the safety of shore. This logic, however, has not prevented many a barb from being thrown while on the high seas. In 2008, Peter Mandelson was accused of “dripping pure poison” about Prime Minister Gordon Brown into George Osborne’s ear during a party on Queen K, a yacht owned by Russian tycoon Oleg Deripaska. Osborne then shared this information with the press.

This backfired on Osborne, however, when news was later leaked – in retaliation to his gossiping – that Osborne had used the trip to solicit a donation to the Tory party from Deripaska, which would have been illegal. Osborne denied it but was made aware that Mandelson was not someone to cross.

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