Strange Goings-On in Vanuatu

One of the great things about having published Latitude 38 magazine for over 35 years, is that we have developed a vast network of contacts all over the world. And those contacts occasionally give us tips on news we might not have known about otherwise. A case is point was an email that came our way recently from longtime cruisers Bruce Balen and Alene Rice of the Southern California-based Cross 46 tri Migration. They alerted us to the strange case of Phocea.

In late July, the 246-ft megayacht was raided by Port Vila police on suspicion of smuggling drugs, arms and money into the country. The yacht’s captain, Richard Malaise, and an American model rumored to be the owner’s girlfriend, Faviola Brugger Dadis, were arrested for entering the country illegally, and then 13 crewmembers were later detained in connection with the case. All paid relatively meager fines and were released.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It seems two Vanuatuan ministers illegally boarded the vessel before she’d cleared into the country, and it’s been alleged that another high-powered politician delayed the search warrant papers long enough to allow the yacht’s owner, Pascal Anh Quan Saken — who also just happens to have recently been nominated as Vanuatu’s honorary consul to Vietnam — to leave the country before the raid. Prime Minister Sato Kilman denies the allegations of government corruption but gives no explanations for any of these apparent ‘mysteries’ surrounding the case, including the mystery of why the sole police investigator qualified to look into the matter was suspended by a politician.