AdvanFort

[11] Also in 2011, the company pleaded guilty in a US district court to "Aiding and Abetting the Making of a False Statement During the Acquisition of Firearms" in connection with a purchase from a supplier who did not secure the correct export license, for which it paid a fine and began serving two years' probation in spring 2013.

[15][16][17] As of September 2012[update] the company's advisory board included Charles Dragonette, a retired Senior Commercial Maritime Operations Analyst at the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence, Rear Admiral Joel Whitehead (USCG-Ret), John A.C. Cartner, a master mariner and maritime and admiralty attorney, and Michael Crye, an attorney and retired Coast Guard Captain.

[20][21] On 12 October 2013, the MV Seaman Guard Ohio was detained in international waters by ICGS Naiki Devi and escorted to VOC Chidambaranar Port in Thoothukudi (Tuticorin).

[22][23][24][25] The ship had been close to a protected maritime conservation zone, the Gulf of Mannar Marine National Park, a Biosphere Reserve,[26] but wasn't inside.

[27] Defense personnel claimed that the interception occurred as the Seaman Guard Ohio was anchored barely 3.8 nautical miles from the baseline from which Indian territorial waters commence.

[34] AdvanFort called the arrests of crew members "inappropriate" and said that the company would explore diplomatic and legal avenues to obtain their release.

[51] Tamil Nadu Police Coastal Security Group filed a FIR against the crew and guards of the ship on 13 October, for unauthorised entrance into Indian waters in the Bay of Bengal with arms and ammunition and also for improper purchase of subsidized marine fuel.

[68] On 10 July 2014, Justice P N Prakash of the Madras high court dismissed criminal charges filed against the crew and armed-guards of the MV Seaman Guard Ohio under the Arms Act.

The judge explained the reasons for the detention of the vessel as well as dismissal of criminal charges by saying: "I hold that the anchoring of MV Seaman Guard Ohio within our territorial sea was out of necessity and their action is saved by the principle of 'innocent passage' contemplated by Section 4(1) of the Territorial Waters, Continental Shelf, Exclusive Economic Zone and Other Maritime Zone Act, 1976 and Article 18 and 19 of UNCLOS.

Supreme Court Bench of Justices Vikramjit Sen and Abhay Manohar Sapre set aside the High Court's decision as “illegal and erroneous.” explaining that “The very fact that huge quantity of arms and ammunition were recovered from the possession of the crew members from the vessel and they were unable to satisfy their legal possession over such arms/ammunition is sufficient to attract the provisions of Arms Act,”.

[74] The crew of MV Seaman Guard Ohio, already freed from police custody but forced to remain in India, can only obtain their "No Objection Certificate" (NOC) from the Q branch.

[75] On 11 January 2016, judge of Tuticorin District Principal Sessions Court sentenced all the 10 crew and 25 guards to undergo five years of imprisonment and a fine of ₹3,000 each.

[76][77] On Monday, 27 November 2017 the Chennai Appeal Court announced that the accused had been acquitted as the prosecution failed to prove they were in Indian waters and the ship held all necessary licences for the rifles on board.