Americas News
Shipping Firms' Guilty Plea to US Court Merits $2m Fine for Dumping Oily Waste
Two shipping firms complicit in an oily waste dumping incident in which their ship's oil record book was falsified have pleaded guitly to charges in a US federal court.
UAE-based Prive Overseas Marine LLC and Turkey-based Prive Shipping Denizcilik Ticaret entered the plea which, if accepted by the New Orleans court, will result in a $2 million fine and four-year probation.
Separate charges have been filed against the master of the tanker, PS Dream, Abdurrahman Korkmaz, according to a US Justice Department statement.
The case goes back to January last year when a crew member who'd witnessed oil being pumped overboard informed the US Coast Guard.
The ship's master ordered crew members to pump overboard from the residual oil tank, which contained oily waste, according to the statement citing court documents.
"A portable pump placed inside the tank and connected to a long flexible hose was used to discharge directly into the ocean without any required pollution prevention equipment or monitoring.
"The waste oil, including sludge, originated in the engine room and had been improperly transferred into the residual oil tank on the deck of the ship by a prior crew.
"Senior managers at Prive Shipping were aware that the oil-contaminated waste remained in the tank and were informed by the ship's master that it had been dumped overboard."
Part of the funds from the fine will go towards local marine protection work and part will go to the crew who informed the authorities.
