A US jury charged a Greek ship management company, the ship owner, and the Chief Engineer of the Nigerian-flagged oil tanker ‘M/T Evridiki’ for failing to keep accurate pollution control records, falsifying records, and obstruction of justice, the US Department of Justice announced.
Namely, a federal grand jury in Wilmington, Delaware, returned a four-count indictment on 16 May charging Evridiki Navigation Inc., Liquimar Tankers Management Services Inc., and Nikolaos Vastardis, over falsification of records and other acts designed to conceal from the USCG inspectors impermissible overboard discharges of oily bilge water from the tanker.
According to the indictment, on or about 11 March 2019, Vastardis, who was the chief engineer for the ship, failed to maintain an accurate oil record book which fully recorded both the discharge overboard of bilge water that had accumulated in machinery spaces, and any failure of the ship’s oil filtering equipment.
Additionally, when USCG inspected the ship’s pollution control equipment, the chief engineer made false statements concerning how the equipment was operated at sea, and demonstrated how the equipment was operated at sea in a manner designed to trick the equipment into reporting the discharge of oily bilge water at permissible levels.
The vessel’s management company, Liquimar Tankers Management Services; the vessel’s owner, Evridiki Navigation; and Vastardis are all charged with failing to maintain an accurate oil record book as required by the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, a US law which implements MARPOL,
…said the US Department of Justice.
The defendants are also charged with falsification of records, obstruction of justice, and making false statements.
The case was investigated by the US Coast Guard Investigative Service.
