The Case of the Brillante Virtuoso

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The Case of the Brillante Virtuoso: Episode 1 - Distress Call

Episode 1 - Distress Call

BBC Radio 4 - The Case of the Brillante Virtuoso, Episode 1 - Distress Call

Nick Wallis investigates a high seas hoax that became connected to a murder.

Nick Wallis investigates an extraordinary high seas hoax that became connected to a murder.

When the Brillante Virtuoso, a massive, decrepit oil tanker, was attacked and badly damaged off the coast of Yemen in 2011, it seemed at first like just the latest in a spate of daring raids launched by Somali pirates in an increasingly lawless region. On the surface it was a shocking but straightforward crime. In reality, it was anything but.

Over the next decade, the scandal swirling around the ship would come to involve lies on an industrial scale, corruption, violent threats, Greek Shipowners, Yemeni power brokers, British lawyers, Filipino sailors, the murder of a British man that remains tragically unsolved, and his family's fight to unravel a web of organised crime. 

Journalist Nick Wallis follows a story that goes all the way from from the bleeding edge of the Arab Spring to the heart of the City of London.

Presenter: Nick Wallis
Producer: Robert Nicholson
Executive Producer: Will Yates
Sound Design: Leonie Thomas

A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

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An investigation into a plot which would not be out of place in an Ian Fleming thriller.

An ongoing investigation, spearheaded by Nick Wallis (Panorama, The Great Post Office Trial). This is a story with a plot which would not be out of place in an Ian Fleming thriller

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The Case of the Brillante Virtuoso

Episode 1 - Distress Call

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