Genting’s Crystal Cruises said to be shutting US office

Crystal Cruises, the luxury cruise arm of Genting Hong Kong, is rumoured to be shutting down its US office.

Hong Kong.- Genting Hong Kong’s Crystal Cruises is reported to have laid off staff as it proceeds with shutting down its office in Miami. Bloomberg cites an unnamed source that says employees were laid off last Wednesday.

The news follows the seizure of two shops in the Bahamas at the request of a fuel supplier over $4.6m in unpaid bills.

An unverified video of an announcement made to crew aboard a Crystal ship posted on Twitter via Crew Center, a forum for cruise workers, suggests that V.Ships, a vessel management company, will manage the ships.

“Unfortunately this is the end of Crystal Cruises,” the crew are told in the video. “We don’t know what’s going to happen in the future. The ships are for sale.”

Crystal Cruises’ announced in January that it was suspending operations until at least April 29 when Genting Hong Kong filed for liquidation after a German court rejected a request to release US$88m in funds for its German shipyard unit MV Werften.

The cruise ship operator said that petition was essential to “maximise the chance of success of the financial restructuring and to provide a moratorium on claims by any of its unsecured creditors and to seek to avoid a disorderly liquidation of the company.” 

The Board has gone through several changes since the announcement.