I believe it had something to do with how much was spent in game (keys and such)...Most of the people I talked to had spent well over 1000$ The redeeming code was emailed to them as well.
Cryptic simply stated that the ship was given to players who provided "outstanding support" to STO. I am guessing that there were only a specific numbers of ship codes to be given so there was likely a lottery for all players who qualified as provided "outstanding support". The lucky winners got the ship code.
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Rouge Sto Wiki Editor.
Probably safer to kick those than talk about the Gold Marauder