The liquidator for bankrupt Global Maritime Investments (GMI) has filed a lawsuit against Tsuneishi Group Zhoushan Shipbuilding alleging that the yard should refund deposits for two cancelled newbuildings.

Charles Berk, the trustee winding up several GMI entities in a federal court in New York, alleges that the nearly $13.3m in deposits made for a pair of kamsarmaxes amounted to what US bankruptcy law considers a "fraudulent transfer", although it is not fraud in the traditional sense of the word.