In 2008, a scandal broke out in the Miami legal community.  Royal Caribbean Cruises discovered that one of its employees in its risk management department had been bribed by a local law firm  – the Wingate Law Firm – to divulge the settlement authority authorized by the cruise line’ s underwriters to settle crew member cases.

The bribery allegations involved a long term member of the cruise line’s risk management department employed as the supervisor of crew claims.  For just $500, the Royal Caribbean employee would tell the crew members’ lawyers the amount of money that had been reserved with the insurance carrier to resolve the case.  According to an article in Law.com entitled "Royal Caribbean Sues for Attorney Fees," the claims supervisor admitted accepting the $500 payments from the law firm’s paralegal and an "investigator" in exchange for the cruise line’s confidential Deep Throat - Cruise Line Bribery settlement information on 20 crew members. 

She also received a $2,000 Christmas bonus from the law firm.  Merry Christmas!

"Deep Throat" 

In the lawsuit, which Royal Caribbean filed against the Wingate firm, the cruise line identified its employee as "Deep Throat" – a reference to the notorious pornographic movie from the early 1970’s as well as the pseudonym given to the secret informant who provided information to the Washington Post about President Richard Nixon’s involvement in the Watergate scandal.

But the lawsuit revealed more about the corrupt cruise line than the evil lawyers.  The "Deep Throat" claims supervisor was just another story in the the history of deep seeded corruption at Royal Caribbean.  This cruise line is a Liberian company which the U.S. Governmental fined $27,000,000 and placed on probation for lying and environmental crimes years and which earned it a top 25 corporate felon recognition for the 1990’s.

In a nutshell, the "Deep Throat" lawsuit involved a Liberian corporate felon (Royal Caribbean) suing some corrupt lawyers who made a deal with a corrupt employee.  It is hard to feel sorry for anyone involved in this sordid affair, except for the injured, indigent crew members from countires like Jamaica, St. Vincent and Trinidad who had no clue what was happening. 

Miami’s Daily Business Review ran a series of articles about the mess. 

At the end of the day, one of the lawyers at the law firm "retired" and moved to South Africa.  His associate and the "investigator" are still involved in bringing cases against Royal Caribbean, which does not seem to care a bit.  The 77 foreign crew members previously represented by the law firm were transferred lock, stock and barrel to another firm.  (Why does the 1857 Dred Scott decision come to mind?)  

No jail time for the corrupt cruise line employee or any of the dishonest lawyers. 

An obscene ending to a dirty affair.