Doorae Shipping to pay $950,000 in pollution case
APRIL 6, 2016 — South Korea’s Doorae Shipping was sentenced yesterday to pay a fine of $750,000 and a community service payment of $200,000 after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in
APRIL 6, 2016 — South Korea’s Doorae Shipping was sentenced yesterday to pay a fine of $750,000 and a community service payment of $200,000 after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court in
MARCH 16,2016 — The 6,300 dwt Antigua & Barbuda flagged multipurpose tweendecker M/V BBC Magellan won’t be seen in the U.S. for the next five years. Yesterday the two German companies that
JANUARY 15, 2016 — A Turkish ship management company, Ciner Gemi Acente Isletni Sanayi Ve Ticaret S.A., is to pay $1.05 million after pleading guilty to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution
Oceanfleet Shipping Limited is a Greek shipping company that operates the 29,513 dwt Liberian-flag general cargo ship M/V Ocean Hope.
The two engineering officers indicted are the vessel’s Chief Engineer, Rustico Yabut Ignacio, 65, of the Philippines; and the Second Engineer, Cassius Flores Samson, 51, of the Philippines.
According to the indictment, in 2015 Samson bypassed pollution prevention equipment with an unauthorized hose connection, or “magic pipe,” to discharge oil sludge generated by the M/V Ocean Hope directly into the sea. Samson also ordered crew members on numerous other occasions to pump oily mixtures from the vessel’s bilges into the sea using the ship’s general service pump rather than processing these mixtures through the vessel’s pollution prevention equipment.
To hide the illegal discharges, Ignacio and Samson allegedly maintained a fictitious oil record book that failed to record the disposal, transfer, or overboard discharge of oil from the vessel. The oil record book also contained false entries stating that pollution prevention equipment had been used when it had not.
The indictment further alleges Ignacio and Samson ordered subordinate crew members to lie to the U.S. Coast Guard during an inspection in Wilmington, NC. The crew members were allegedly instructed to deny knowledge of the connection of the pipe used discharge sludge and to tell the Coast Guard that Oily Water Separator had been used as required under international law to process oily mixtures before discharge when they knew it had not.
Both engineering officers were charged with violating the federal Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships for failing to record overboard discharges in the vessel’s oil record book, conspiracy for their agreement to violate federal law, obstruction of justice for presenting false documents intended to deceive the Coast Guard and witness tampering for ordering subordinate crewmembers to mislead and lie to the Coast Guard.
Samson was also charged with false statements and obstruction of justice for lying to Coast Guard inspectors about the discharges.
The U.S. Coast Guard, Sector North Carolina, investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Banumathi Rangarajan with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina and Trial Attorneys Shane N. Waller and Brendan Selby with the Department of Justice’s Environmental Crimes Section are prosecuting the case.announced Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney Thomas G. Walker for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
According to the Department of Justice, evidence presented during the two-week trial demonstrated that in January 2010, DSD Shipping knew that the oily-water separator aboard its106,541 dwt crude oil tanker Stavanger Blossom was inoperable. In an internal corporate memo, DSD Shipping noted that the device could not properly filter oil-contaminated waste water and stated that individuals “could get caught for polluting” if the problem was not addressed. Rather than repair or replace the oily-water separator, however, DSD Shipping used various methods to bypass the device and force the discharge of oily-wastes into the ocean. During the last months of the vessel’s operation prior to its arrival in the Port of Mobile, the M/T Stavanger Blossom discharged approximately 20,000 gallons of oil-contaminated waste water.
The evidence at trial also established that DSD Shipping employees intentionally discharged fuel oil sludge directly into the ocean. Specifically, crew members cleaned the vessel’s fuel oil sludge tank, removed approximately 264 gallons of sludge and placed the waste oil into plastic garbage bags. After hiding the sludge bags aboard the ship from port authorities in Mexico, defendants Chen and Zhong ordered crew members to move as many as 100 sludge bags to the deck of the vessel. There, Zhong threw the sludge bags overboard directly into the ocean.
The Department of Justice says that DSD Shipping, Dancu, Gao, Chen and Zhong, all attempted to hide these discharges from the U.S. Coast Guard by making false and fictitious entries in the vessel’s oil record book and garbage record book. Further, after arriving in Mobile, Chen and Zhong lied to the U.S. Coast Guard about the discharge of sludge and ordered lower ranking crewmembers to do the same.
At the conclusion of trial, DSD Shipping was convicted of one count of conspiracy, three counts of violating APPS, three counts of obstruction of justice and one count of witness tampering. Defendant Gao was convicted of one count of conspiracy and two counts of obstruction of justice. Defendant Chen was convicted of one count of violating APPS, three counts of obstruction of justice and one count of witness tampering. Finally, Zhong was convicted of two counts of violating APPS, two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of witness tampering.
DSD Shipping could be fined up to $500,000 per count, in addition to other possible penalties. Gao, Chen and Zhong face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the obstruction of justice charges
The case was investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Mobile, U.S. Coast Guard District Eight, CGIS and the EPA, Criminal Investigations Division. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Anderson, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama, and the Department of Justice’s Environmental Crimes Section Trial Attorney Shane N. Waller prosecuted the case.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas reports that Chandris, the operator of the the 158, 519 dwt Suezmax tanker M/V Sestrea, which made calls in multiple ports in Texas, pleaded guilty to a violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships for failing to properly maintain an oil record book as required by federal and international law, as well as a violation of making a false statement for making a false entry in the ship’s oil record book.
Shortly following the plea, U.S. District Judge Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos ordered the company to pay an $800,000 criminal fine along with a $200,000 community service payment to the congressionally-established National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. The money will be designated for use in the Flower Garden and Stetson Banks National Marine Sanctuary, headquartered in Galveston, to support the protection and preservation of natural and cultural resources located in and adjacent to the sanctuary.
Chandris was also sentenced to three years probation. As a condition of the probation, all ships Chandris manages and that are involved in transporting crude oil will be forced to comply with an Environmental Compliance Plan.
According to a joint factual statement, on or about Dec. 18, 2014, the chief engineering officer on board the M/V Sestrea acting on behalf of Chandris used a hose to pump fresh water through the Oil Content Meter. Because of this, the meter was “tricked” into sensing that all of the oily bilge water being run through the Oil Water Separator within normal limits.
As a result, the system discharged oily water in excess of 15 parts per million overboard into the sea.
According to court documents, the chief engineer knowingly failed to make the required entries into the oil record book including the fact that oily waste had been discharged directly into the sea. The chief engineer also made false entries in the oil record book to conceal the fact that the pollution control equipment had not been used. The crew members then attempted to conceal the discharge on Dec. 18, 2014, during a Coast Guard boarding at the port in Corpus Christi by providing the falsified oil record book to the boarding crew.
The investigation was conducted by the Coast Guard – Corpus Christi Sector and the Coast Guard Investigative Service in Corpus Christi.
JUNE 1, 2015 — The U.S. Department of Justice reports that AML Ship Management GmbH, a German company, was last week sentenced in federal court in Anchorage, AK, to pay a total
FEBRUARY 18, 2015—In what appears to be another “magic pipe” incident, U.S. Attorney Karen L. Loeffler recently announced that AML Ship Management GMBH, and a chief engineer of the M/V City of
MAY 21, 2014 — Jordan-based Arab Ship Management Ltd. yesterday pleaded guilty today in federal court in Wilmington, Delaware, to one count of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships In
MARCH 5, 2014 — The U.S.Department of Justice reports that Singapore-based Odfjell Asia II Pte Ltd (Odfjell) and one of its senior crew members pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Hartford,