US Authorities Fine South Korean Bunker Tanker Owner $950,000

A South Korean company pled guilty to lying to the USCG about dumping oily bilge water and failing maintain an accurate oil record book.

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Hawaii has announced that South Korean bunker tanker owner Doorae Shipping Co., LTD (Doorae Shipping) has been fined $750,000, as well as a community service payment of $200,000, and been given a term of two years of probation.

The sentence, revealed last week, comes after the company pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an accurate oil record book and making false statements to the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) in relation to the discharge of oil contaminated bilge water from the vessel B. Sky.

The court is said to have heard evidence that showed that Jueng Mun, Chief Engineer of the B. Sky, had run bilge water through an oil water separator and discharged more than 500 gallons of oily machinery space bilge water directly into the ocean.

"This case is a great example of inter-agency teamwork to hold accountable vessel operators that choose to pollute the waters around the Hawaiian Islands," said Captain Shannon Gilreath, USCG at the Port of for Honolulu.

The court is also said to have accepted a guilty plea from Mun in response to a charge of causing the maintenance of a faulty oil record book, for which Mun will be sentenced on July 27, 2016.

"The defendants in this case falsified their log books in an attempt to conceal their crimes, but thanks to the thoroughness of Coast Guard and EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) investigators and the persistence of the United States Attorney's Office, the defendants got caught," said Jay M. Green, a special agent at the EPA.

"Today's guilty pleas demonstrate that the American people will not tolerate the flagrant violation of U.S. laws."

In March, the U.S. Department of Justice Attorney's Office of the Northern District of Florida, announced that German shipping companies, Briese Schiffahrts GmbH & Co. KG (Briese) and Briese Schiffahrts GmbH & Co. KG MS "Extum" (Extum), who owned and operated the M/V BBC Magellan cargo ship, had pled guilty and been sentenced to pay a total of $1.5 million for illegally discharging oil into the ocean.