The Captain of the PS Dream, a Panama-flagged motor tanker, pleaded guilty to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) and obstructing proceedings.
According to the US Office of Public Affairs, he admitted to presenting falsified oil record books to the U.S. Coast Guard in New Orleans, hiding the fact that his crew had deliberately dumped oily waste into the ocean on their way to the U.S. This illegal dumping occurred from January 11, 2023, until their arrival in New Orleans on January 26, 2023.
The captain ordered the crew to use a portable pump and a long hose to discharge oil-contaminated waste directly into the ocean without the required pollution prevention equipment.
The waste, including sludge from the engine room, had been improperly stored in the residual oil tank by a previous crew. Senior managers at Prive Shipping LLC and Prive Shipping Denizcilik Ticaret, the two companies operating the PS Dream, were aware of the dumping and pleaded guilty to related environmental crimes last month.
The captain faces a maximum of six years in prison and fines up to $250,000 for the APPS violation and five years in prison and similar fines for the obstruction charge, with sentencing set for September 10. Prive Shipping LLC and Prive Shipping Denizcilik Ticaret will be sentenced on September 26.
The case was investigated by the Coast Guard Investigative Service and the EPA’s Criminal Investigations Division, with prosecution led by the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana.
