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News — Magazine and Newspaper Articles

Below is a collection of newspaper and magazine interviews given by the Operations
Director of VessEx, Capt. Max Hardberger.
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Featured Interview — June/July 2010 — High-Seas Repo Man
— Men's Journal

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Need to sneak a 10,000-ton ship out of a third-world port
without a security clearance? We've got your man.
Max Hardberger has worked variously as a pilot, a high school
teacher, a maritime lawyer, and a marine surveyor. But it's his
20 years recovering and repossessing ships and aircraft—the
last eight of them as head of his New Orleans-based company,
Vessel Extractions—that we were curious
about. Here's his story in his own words ... Click here to read the full article.
2 pages (779KB)
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Featured Interview— March 1, 2007 —
He's His Own Port Authority
— Los Angeles Times

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A seafaring 'repo man' uses
stealth and trickery to seize cargo ships taken by thieves or
corrupt officials
If repossessing a used Chevrolet can be tricky, consider retrieving the
Aztec Express, a 700-foot cargo ship under guard in Haiti as civil unrest spread
through the country. Only a few repo men possess the guile and resourcefulness for
such a job. One of them is F. Max Hardberger, of Lacombe, La. Since 1991, the 58-year-old attorney
and ship captain has surreptitiously sailed away about a dozen freighters from ports
around the world. “I’m sure there are those who would like to add me to a list of
modern pirates of the Caribbean, but I do whatever I can to protect the legal rights of my clients,”
said Hardberger, whose company, Vessel Extractions in New Orleans, has negotiated the
releases of another dozen cargo
ships and prevented the seizures of many others. His line of work regularly
takes him to a corner of the maritime industry still plagued by pirates, underhanded business
practices and corrupt government officials, waters the Aztec Express sailed right into.
The saga began in 2003 when the vessel’s Greek owner died and his company did not keep
up payments on a $3.3-million mortgage. Bahamian court records show
... Click here to read the full article.
2 pages (956KB)
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July 2, 2010 — High-Seas Repo Man — TIME

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In sea ports the world over, a small bribe paid to a local official allows "white collar pirates" to seize ships from their legitimate owners. To recover the multimillion-dollar vessels, aggrieved ship owners call on Max Hardberger, a maritime lawyer turned high-seas repossession man. In his memoir Seized, which came out in the U.S. on April 6 and in Britain on July 1, he recounts his dangerous battles with Haitian rebels, Caribbean pirates and even the Russian mafia. The sea captain recently spoke with TIME about the murky world of ocean shipping, and how prostitutes and voodoo doctors from Greece to Guatemala have helped him retrieve ships.
Click
here to read the full article.
2 pages (57KB)
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February 2008 — The Good Pirate — University of Iowa Alumni Magazine

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In a life reminiscent of a movie script, a swashbuckling UI alumnus fights for justice on the high seas.
What do you call a man who surreptitiously boards stolen sea freighters under cover of darkness, guiding a motley crew of island natives and sea-weathered sailors to steal the ship back for the good guys?
A man who hires witch doctors to help him escape? A man who has spent his 59 years as a ship captain, scuba diver, aircraft pilot, flight instructor, surveyor, attorney, writer, musician, and even a high school English teacher?
He must be a fictional character, the stuff of tall tales and action adventure, a Renaissance man larger than life and full of surprises. Is he a Pirate of the Caribbean? A modern-day Indiana Jones?
F. Max Hardberger could be a character created by a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Instead, Hardberger, 72MFA, is the workshop graduate.
... Click here to read the full article.
2 pages (586KB)
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Fall 2007 — Freighter
Repo Man
— University of New Orleans Alumni Magazine

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Author, teacher, entrepreneur, crop duster, pilot, freighter captain, port captain,
lawyer, ocean-going freighter repo-man and now the subject of a Hollywood
movie — that’s UNO graduate Max Hardberger’s life in brief. His adventures
were featured in a Los Angeles Times story last spring, and his tales not only
caught the attention of the UNO Magazine staff, but of writers and producers
in New York and Hollywood. While his life certainly reads like a Hollywood
movie, it had a much simpler start. That’s where we begin.
A Burgeoning Adventurer. Growing up in Thibodeaux, Louisiana, Florian Max
Hardberger, Jr., the son of a biology professor, always had a taste for adventure. He was a licensed aircraft
pilot at 16 and .... Click here to read the full article.
6 pages (245KB)

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April 26, 2007 — Just What the Witch Doctor Ordered
— Fairplay Int'l Shipping Weekly

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Max Hardberger specialises in extractions, but dentistry this isn’t – although it can be painful. Meet a seagoing repo man who won’t shrink from brinkmanship when negotiation fails
Max Hardberger’s favourite role, since transforming himself
from a freighter skipper into a maritime lawyer, is ‘vessel extraction
specialist’. Perhaps the reason why is such chores can lead to shenanigans of
Indiana Jones proportions. Yet when asked by Fairplay about ship repossessions, he calls extractions
“last resorts”, which he carries out only after all other avenues have failed.
“Negotiations are the key in returning vessels to their rightful owners,”
Hardberger explains, in view of the risk and complexity of repossessing a
commercial vessel from what can be a hostile ... Click here to read the full article.
2 pages (797KB)
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March 25, 2007 — Agent
00sjø — Dagens Næringsliv Magasinet

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(In Norwegian) When a ship is stolen in lawless waters, Mr. Max
Hardberger goes into action. He takes care of pirates, mutinying crew, and criminals. Then he steals the vessel back and sets course for a safe harbor.
Max Hardberger and his bodyguard drove towards the Miragoane harbor area in Haiti. It was 2004, with riots and criminals ruling the streets. Time would run out in 48 hours. Then the cargo ship “The Aztec Express” would be sold to a criminal. Now the ship lay arrested and tied up at the dock with armed guards on
deck. An American businessman had bribed a judge in order to buy it cheap in a prearranged auction, explains Hardberger to DN.
He cased the 700’ freighter with binoculars, adopted a Russian
accent, passing himself on as a sailor as he drank with ship's officers and sailors in shady bars. He visited brothels where he paid for information. He was told that the guards onboard The Aztec Express were selling fuel on the black market, and that harbor authorities used a cell phone that only had coverage in the vicinity of a close by soccer field. In secrecy
he... Click here to read the full article. 2 pages
(190KB)
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October 2002 — Last Best Chance: Analysis of the Pre-Financing Ship
Survey — Marine Money

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Prudent lenders now require a current survey of the ships they are considering for marine financing, but the analysis of a marine survey is an art in itself. Considering that most marine financiers ultimately
base their lending decisions on the vessel’s survey report forwarded by the loan applicant, a careful review of the information contained in this report, both stated and implied, may be the lender’s last best chance to protect
himself from investment in a substandard vessel ... Click here to read the full article. 5 pages
(57KB)
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June 2002 — Wasting Assets: Deteriorating Ship Condition in Shipping
Finance — Marine Money

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One of the major factors in the success or failure of a shipowning enterprise is the physical condition of the vessel. But with the utilization
of contract management in modern shipping, shipowners increasingly find themselves removed from their vessels. Even further
removed are mortgagees, bondholders, or shareholders who have an interest in the vessel, but no ability
actively to monitor—much less control—the ship’s day to day operations. Often, their grasp of the vessel’s
condition, her trading market, and her asset value recede to the background as financial, corporate, and
legal considerations take the foreground.... Click here to read the full article. 4 pages
(64KB)
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March 13, 2002 — VessEx Offers Ship Repossession — Tradewinds

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The newly launched Vessel Extractions (VessEx) hopes
to take advantage of the tumultuous shipping environment by offering
“extraction” services to shipowners.
Max Hardberger, operations director of the San Francisco-based ship
recovery company, told TradeWinds Tuesday that VessEx may begin its first
case within the next few days. “We’re talking to New York
maritime lawyers, and we should be handed our first case within the next
few days,” he said.
VessEx offers repossession of ships for mortgagees, and assistance to
shipowners whose vessels have been seized, detained, abandoned or stolen.
VessEx is run by Hardberger and Michael Bono, the company’s managing
director... Click here to read the full article. 1
page (161KB)
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July 16, 1990 — Commando Action Saves Ship — Florida
Shipper Magazine

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In a dramatic pre-dawn action, the cargo ship Patric M
was snatched from the clutches of judicial blackmail and piloted
to safety by her owners. At 2 a.m. in the morning, the ship
began a difficult maneuver - navigate without lights, tugs or
pilot the narrow four mile passage that separated the ship from
freedom. In 26 minutes she reached the seabouy, and at 4 a.m.
the ship crossed the 12 mile territorial boundary of Venezuela -
well before the operation was detected at daybreak. "With a
court order that allowed gangsters to use our ship," said
J.P. Maher, president of Morgan Price, the ship's management
company. "Our lawyers, some of the best in Venezuela, did
not see a legal solution to ... Click here to read the full article.
1 page (290KB)
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