Chinese court sells seized ship online for ?16 crore
The Shanghai Maritime Court in China has sold a seized foreign ship for $2.41 million (?16 crore) at an online auction through Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. The Panamanian-flagged Mahoni was seized in May after crew members filed a lawsuit claiming its owner had not been paying them. The auction attracted over 12,000 viewers and went through 63 rounds of offers.
From K J M Varma Beijing, Jan 18 (PTI) A Chinese court has sold a seized foreign ship in online auction for whopping USD 2.41 million through e-commerce giant Alibaba. The Shanghai Maritime Court sold the seized ship for 16.89 million yuan (USD 2.41 million), state-run Global Times reported today. The Panamanian-flagged Mahoni was bought by the Hong Kong-based Zhongjiang Ocean Shipping Limited through an auction hosted by Taobao, Chinas biggest consumer-to-consumer online shopping platform, and was transferred to the firm by the court on last Friday. Mahoni was seized in May 2016 by the local court in Shanghai Harbour after 31 Filipino crew members filed a lawsuit against the boats owner - an Indonesian shipping company - as they claimed they had not been paid for 18 months. The auction attracted 12,112 viewers and went through 63 rounds of offers, before reaching the final price. This is not the first time that the Shanghai Maritime Court has auctioned seized vessels online. As the first Shanghai court to make use of Taobaos online auction platform, it sold a confiscated Chinese ship for 769.92 million yuan in January 2016, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. 