Wes Moore’s Sweetheart Deal with the Operators of the Ship That Destroyed the Key Bridge

On the menu today: You’re not going to believe this, but the governor of Maryland signed a deal that guarantees that if there’s a payout of more than $50 million in the state’s expected lawsuit against Hyundai Heavy Industries, the South Korean company that built the ship that rammed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge and destroyed it back in 2024, then half the money after a $50 million threshold goes to the companies that owned and operated the ship. Except . . . the U.S. Department of Justice is contending in court that the operators of the ship altered it to make it less safe, lied to the National Transportation Safety Board, and did everything possible to shift blame to Hyundai. If you’re a Maryland taxpayer, why do you want any money that could be going to the state as part of a judgment or settlement going to the company that operated the ship? Governor Moore, did you read the deal you signed? Meanwhile, out in Ohio, Vivek Ramaswamy scores one of the biggest self-owns of all time. Read on.

A Bridge Too Far

A bit more than a week ago, this newsletter covered Maryland Governor Wes Moore and the slow pace of the rebuilding of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. There’s a curious detail in Maryland’s settlement with the ship operator that deserves further scrutiny.

On March 26, 2024, the cargo ship M/V Dali collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge, triggering its collapse. Back on May 12, Maryland State Attorney General Anthony Brown announced that the state had reached a final settlement of $2.25 billion with Grace Ocean Private Limited and Synergy Marine Pte Ltd., the owner and operator of the ship. Brown’s press release stated, “The National Transportation Safety Board, in its final report issued in November 2025, found Hyundai Heavy Industries to be at fault in causing the M/V Dali’s loss of power and its [collision*] with the Francis Scott Key Bridge.”

Except . . . that might not be the full picture, because the same day, the U.S. Department of Justice charged two corporate entities and a shoreside superintendent for their roles in the crash, including lying to the National Transportation Safety Board.

The DOJ charged “Synergy Marine Pte Ltd, based in Singapore, and Synergy Maritime Pte Ltd, based in Chennai, India, along with Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair, 47, an Indian national who worked for both companies as the Technical Superintendent for the Dali” with “conspiracy, willfully failing to immediately inform the U.S. Coast Guard of a known hazardous condition, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and false statements.”

From the DOJ statement:

According to the indictment, the Dali lost power twice in a four-minute span, as it navigated out to sea from the Port of Baltimore, causing it to crash into the Key Bridge. The indictment alleges that a loose wire in a high-voltage switchboard likely caused the first power loss. Critical systems on the Dali were originally designed with reliable redundancies and automatic restart capabilities, so the Dali could quickly regain power after a blackout. But shortly after the vessel regained power, it lost power again.

According to the indictment, the defendants allegedly altered the ship and relied on a flushing pump to supply fuel to two of the Dali’s four generators. However, the flushing pump was not designed to automatically restart following a blackout, and the Dali’s generators could not operate without a fuel supply, so the ship ultimately experienced a second blackout. The indictment alleges that if the Dali used the proper fuel supply pumps, the vessel would have regained power in time to safely navigate under the Key Bridge.

Synergy and Nair are also charged with obstruction of an agency proceeding and providing false statements and documents to the National Transportation Safety Board as it conducted a casualty investigation. The obstruction charges relate to, among other things, Nair’s statements to the NTSB that he was unaware that that the Dali was using the flushing pump to provide fuel to the generators.

On May 13, Synergy Marine Group responded:

The allegations in the indictment are baseless and have nothing to do with the DALI’s [collision] with the Francis Scott Key Bridge. The DOJ’s reference to the vessel’s use of the flushing pump is wholly irrelevant to the cause of the [collision] and runs contrary to the conclusions reached by the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board following a comprehensive 20-month maritime accident investigation.

Well, one reason the indictment contradicts the NTSB report is that the indictment accuses company officials of lying to the NTSB and providing falsified documents!

Synergy Marine Group is pleading not guilty, and stated confidence “that the DOJ cannot and will not meet its burden of proof and that we will prevail at trial.”

Hyundai Heavy Industries sent me a statement: “HHI delivered a safe and seaworthy ship in 2015 — nearly a decade before the Key Bridge tragedy. Since the incident, HHI has worked collaboratively with various authorities to investigate the cause. Our investigation revealed the Dali’s owner and operator circumvented critical safeguards, cut corners, and violated class rules, which ultimately led to the tragic incident.”

You can see the perspective of Hyundai; they’re convinced they built the ship the way they were supposed to, with reliable redundancies and automatic restart capabilities, and — assuming the facts in the indictment are accurate — the Dali operators messed around with it, leading to those critical systems failing, which led to the collision. If what the DOJ is alleging is true, Hyundai Heavy Industries isn’t as guilty as they look in the NTSB report, and Synergy Marine isn’t as innocent as it looks in that report.

Where it gets particularly intriguing is that the settlement agreement, signed by Governor Moore, says that if the state wins more than $50 million from Hyundai in a future lawsuit, the “Vessel parties” — Grace Ocean Private Unlimited, Synergy Marine, and M/V Dali — get half of any money after that threshold:

3.        The State Parties agree to pursue a claim for damages against Hyundai, and, if successful in recovering damages from Hyundai, either by way of settlement or judgment, they agree to pay a portion of that gross recovery to the Vessel Parties. (In the event of a judgment, “gross recovery” shall be defined as the amount of damages actually paid by Hyundai to the State Parties after application of principles of comparative fault and settlement credit. In the event of a settlement, “gross recovery” shall be defined as the total money paid to the State Parties by Hyundai.) Any gross recovery will be apportioned between the Parties as follows: (a) the first $50 million of such recovery shall be retained 100% by the State Parties, (b) amounts recovered above $50 million shall be split 50/50 between the State Parties and the Vessel Parties until such time as the Vessel Parties have received Two Billion Two Hundred Fifty Million Dollars ($2,250,000,000.00), and (c) all funds recovered in excess of the amounts in (a) and (b) will be reserved entirely to the State Parties. The State Parties will be solely responsible for their costs incurred in their pursuit of Hyundai. [Emphasis added.]

Wait, that’s not all. If the state wins more than $50 million from Hyundai, part of that money goes to cover the attorneys’ fees of the vessel parties.

That arrangement seems awfully generous to a ship operator whom the U.S. Department of Justice contends is ultimately responsible for the collision, doesn’t it?

And Governor Moore can’t really plead ignorance of this detail of the deal . . . because his signature is on the contract. He didn’t issue a statement when the settlement was announced. Maybe he was hoping no one in Maryland would read the fine print?

*Most of these statements and documents refer to the incident as an allision, not a collision; an allision is a nautical term for when a ship runs into a stationary object, while a collision is when two moving objects run into each other. Because the general public rarely uses the word “allision,” I am referring to the incident as a collision.

Out in Ohio, an All-Time Dumb Late Campaign Move

I’ve never been a particularly big fan of Vivek Ramaswamy. Back in 2023, he struck me as “a man who’s running for the 8 p.m. prime-time slot on Fox News, not the presidency.” Glib, all too slick, quick to adopt easy answers when the problems are hard, he seemed like yet another guy who had achieved success in the business world and believed his skills at persuading venture capitalists would quickly and easily translate to the world of policy. (I will say, having watched him on the campaign trail in Iowa, he is a remarkably gifted retail politician when working a room.)

It’s not looking good for Ramaswamy in the Ohio governor’s race this year, whether you’re looking at the polls collected at RealClearPolitics or in the New York Times.

I think it’s time to open ourselves up to the possibility that despite his ability to amass a fortune estimated at $2.3 billion, Vivek Ramaswamy’s brainpower far outpaces his wisdom and judgment:

Republican Vivek Ramaswamy ’s team confirmed late Tuesday that it produced a controversial advertisement featuring the estranged mother of Amy Acton, and the campaign said it will spend $4 million to promote it despite facing bipartisan rebuke for dredging up the painful childhood of his Democratic opponent in Ohio’s governor’s race.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Amy Acton is estranged from her mother because, as our Charles Hilu confirms, legal documents provide evidence that Acton faced sexual abuse as a child while in her mother’s custody:

Acton has long maintained — even before becoming a political candidate — that she grew up in an unstable home when she lived with her mother following her parents’ divorce, even spending a winter in a tent in a campground outside of Youngstown and enduring sexual abuse by one of her mother’s male partners. Court records confirm many key parts of Acton’s account of her life.

If you look at this horrific, sordid story and conclude, “It would be a good idea to make an attack ad featuring Acton’s estranged mother denouncing her,” please see a therapist or perhaps a priest for an exorcism.

It’s a desperation move, one that is near-certain to backfire. Ramaswamy was on a path to defeat before; now a lot of people, horrified by him and his campaign’s willingness to use the enabler of an opponent’s childhood sexual abuse in an attack ad, will want to see him lose.

ADDENDUM: Our John O’Sullivan, writing about the French riots: “Students stormed out of their schools complaining of poor conditions that required more expenditure. Doubtless there are some poor conditions. But why is that? Students and their communities could help to repair those conditions, but they think that is the job of the state. And it is,” but, as John notes and as discussed in this newsletter earlier this week, the state spends a fortune each year on the education system.

When people choose to riot, they rarely choose to riot because of this noble cause or that public problem. They chose to riot because they wanted to riot.