The US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced a plea agreement with a ship management company. The agreement requires payment of a criminal fine of $1,750,000 and four years of probation. During the probation, the company must engage and pay for an independent technical expert to audit the company’s activities.

The company managed and supplied the crew for a bulk carrier ship that was at an anchorage in US waters. The crew discharged oil-contaminated bilge water “through equipment and procedures that bypassed the Vessel’s required pollution prevention equipment.”

Crew Member’s Message to the Coast Guard
The next day, “a crew member aboard the Vessel messaged the Coast Guard through social media and alleged that the engine room bilges of the Vessel had flooded.” Flooding of bilges presents a serious safety issue. The Coast Guard inspected the vessel and initiated an investigation.

Illegal Discharge, False Statements, and Document Destruction
Oil had contaminated the bilge water. Instead of storing the oil contaminated bilge water onboard for future processing or offloading the waste in port for proper disposal, the company’s Chief Engineer directed discharge of the oil contaminated water overboard, at night. The Chief Engineer pleaded separately and was sentenced to a year and one day in prison.

Senior officers and crew members made false statements to the Coast Guard during the agency’s inspection, at the Chief Engineer’s suggestion. They destroyed documents and created false and backdated personnel evaluations intended to discredit the whistleblower, which they gave to the Coast Guard.

To see DOJ’s press release, which includes a link to the “Factual Basis” of the plea agreement filed with the Court, https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/ship-manager-pleads-guilty-dumping-oily-waste-us-waters-coast-new-orleans