"Please see information from the corporate office with regards to the situation in Crimea
“The US Government issued an executive order effective 20 December 2014 that prohibits any US involvement with Crimeans. The way the order is written, it was not apparent that residents of Crimea were affected. We first became aware of this when JP Morgan chase rejected our payments to 80 Crimeans. We understood that the executive order was against sanctioned banks and it took our treasury department about a week to determine that JP Morgan was rejecting the wires because these people seemed to live in Crimea.
We retained lawyers who specialize in this as we strongly disagreed with JP Morgan's assessment. Those lawyers worked within their contacts in the US government who in fact confirmed that JP Morgan was correct. So, we are unable to have any contact with people who live or work in Crimea. That involvement extends to payments of cash or any US involvement that assists Crimeans in living/working.
Yesterday, we put forth a petition to the US government asking for permission to pay out our Crimeans who are in the middle of a hitch. We are waiting for a response from them”
What this means is that we cannot take anyone onboard our vessels who resides in the Crimean region. This is for new and existing mariners. To do so would be breaking the law.
We appreciate your assistance and understanding at this difficult time. Any information you can give us with regards to any mariners that may have move out of that region in the last few months will be greatly appreciated."
