More than 100 customers are still waiting on over $642,000 in refunds after music-themed cruises never took sail, Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said.
Now his office is taking the company behind the canceled cruises to court.
Capital Jazz and its owner, Clifford Hunte of Clarksville, are accused of failing to refund customers for canceled SuperCruise events in 2021 and 2022 — and violating a state agreement by repeating those actions in 2026.
According to the attorney general’s office, the SuperCruise events were standard Caribbean cruises that featured major musical guests. Capital Jazz would rent out all guest rooms on ship through agreements with cruise lines, then sell the rooms back to people at a premium, officials said.
The SuperCruise was canceled in 2021 as the COVID-19 pandemic pushed health officials to forbid cruise travel and again in 2022 over the spread of the Omicron variant, state officials said.
Royal Caribbean, which was set to charter the eight-day cruise in 2021 and 2022, agreed to pay $1.3 million in refunds to customers in an April 2024 lawsuit, according to the attorney general’s office. Representatives for Royal Caribbean did not respond to a request for comment.
Capital Jazz claims it refunded over $6 million for the 2021 and 2022 SuperCruises, exhausting its resources to do so, due to a high percentage of customers requesting them and pandemic-related impacts on their business.
Under a 2025 agreement, Capital Jazz and Hunte were to identify customers who required refunds within 60 days and pay them within 90 days. The agreement also required the company to pay $50,000 to the state and barred Capital Jazz from selling SuperCruise tickets without cancellation insurance.
State officials said Capital Jazz hasn’t done any of that.
The attorney general’s office alleges that Capital Jazz and Hunte entered into an agreement with MSC Cruises in 2025 to host a SuperCruise over March 22-29 this year. But state officials said MSC Cruises backed out after Capital Jazz and Hunte failed to make required payments by the set deadline.
“This cruise was arranged as a private full ship cruise charter organized by Capital Jazz,“ a spokesperson for MSC Cruise said in an email. ”Due to Capital Jazz failing to meet its contractual payment obligations, the charter agreement was terminated in November 2025. Consumers who booked with Capital Jazz and have contacted us have been advised to reach out to the charter organizer Capital Jazz for refunds.”
The SuperCruise, again, did not set sail. The attorney general’s office accuses Capital Jazz and Hunte of violation of their agreement and of deceptive and unfair trade practices. They estimate that around 103 consumers are owed at least $642,240 in refunds for the cancelled 2026 SuperCruise.
“Capital Jazz made a commitment to Maryland consumers and broke it, and then they brazenly did it again,” Brown said in a statement. “My office intends to use every legal tool available to hold it accountable in its failure to honor its obligations to consumers.”
The charges will be heard on July 21. An attorney for Hunte and Capital Jazz did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Capital Jazz is the entity behind the Capital Jazz Fest, which was last held June 6-8, 2025, at the Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia. The festival featured traditional jazz acts such as Esperanza Spalding and Samara Joy; major R&B like Keith Sweat and Teddy Riley; and groups and bands TLC, En Vogue and Baltimore’s own Dru Hill.
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