529 ships, 356 unclassed and a fraud network spanning four continents: the IMO’s false flag crisis has more than quadrupled since 2023 — and LEG 113 must now decide how to stop it
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) has identified 529 vessels operating under false flags, placing ship registration fraud at the centre of next month’s Legal Sub-Committee meeting, LEG 113. A note circulated ahead of the session confirms the tally has risen since LEG 112 and that 356 of those vessels — over two-thirds — are not classed by any recognized classification society. The data was compiled with verification support from S&P Global and published via the IMO’s GISIS platform, spanning tankers, bulk carriers, containerships and smaller craft.
The report chronicles a disturbing range of cases. The Netherlands identified two fraudulent websites issuing false Sint Maarten certificates, with 17 ships confirmed flying the counterfeit flag. The Gambia conducted a registry cleanse that removed 72 ships outright and imposed a moratorium on new registrations after forged certificates surfaced. Landlocked Malawi reported its fraud to INTERPOL and subsequently saw its tally of falsely flagged vessels fall from 27 to eight. Botswana, which does not operate a maritime registry, found 17 vessels transmitting its flag over AIS. Tonga’s case is particularly grave: its international registry was dissolved in 2002, meaning any vessel flying a Tongan flag is legally stateless under international law — and 13 tankers were identified doing exactly that.
The ITF’s David Heindel wrote that the jurisdictional ambiguity enabling ships to shift identities, manipulate registries, and operate without effective oversight “is not accidental — it is built into the business model.” The IMO secretariat will seek from the Legal Committee further measures to tighten verification and strip anonymity from ships exploiting bogus registries. As a point of context, the number of falsely flagged ships has more than doubled since March 2023, when 110 vessels were listed in GISIS — compared to over 220 by January 2025, a trajectory that has now accelerated dramatically to the current 529.