Tag: APPS violation

 The US Department of Justice has announced that Greek ship management company Chandris (Hellas) Inc. has  pleaded guilty and was sentenced for deliberately concealing pollution discharges from the ship directly into the sea and for falsifying  record book of  M/V Sestrea - an 81,502 ton cargo ship that made calls in multiple ports in Texas. The company has agreed to pay $1 million monetary penalty.Chandris pleaded guilty to a violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) for failing to properly maintain an oil record book as required by federal and international law, as well as a violation of making a false statement for making a false entry in the ship’s oil record book.U.S. District Judge Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos ordered the company to pay an $800,000 criminal fine along with a $200,000 community service payment to the congressionally-established National Marine Sanctuary Foundation. The money will be designated for use in the Flower Garden and Stetson Banks National Marine Sanctuary, headquartered in Galveston, to support the protection and preservation of natural and cultural resources located in and adjacent to the sanctuary.Chandris was also sentenced to three years probation. As a condition of the probation, all ships Chandris manages and are involved in transporting ...

  Norbulk Shipping UK Ltd, a company based in Glasgow, United Kingdom, and operator of the M/V Murcia Carrier, pleaded guilty to failing to maintain an accurate oil record book in violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) and providing false statements to the U.S. Coast Guard concerning the vessel’s garbage record book.  The company was sentenced to pay a criminal penalty of $750,000 and placed on three years of probation by the Honorable Joseph H. Rodriguez, the Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division and the U.S Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey announced today. “Our oceans are life giving and life sustaining resources that our country and our world depend upon,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. “Ignoring perfectly legal and feasible ways to dispose of waste, the defendants chose instead to dump directly into the ocean.  Today the company will pay a price for this inexcusable and criminal act.” “Illegal discharges at sea damage our environment and endanger those who work in and enjoy our coastal waters,” said U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman for the District of New Jersey.  “As we have shown before, ...

The chief engineer of the cargo vessel M/V Selene Leader pleaded guilty in federal court in Baltimore, Maryland, to obstruction of justice and violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS), announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Sam Hirsch and U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein of the District of Maryland. Noly Torato Vidad was the chief engineer of the vessel, which was operated by Hachiuma Steamship Co LTD, a Japanese company, between August 2013 and the end of January 2014.  The M/V Selene Leader According to the plea agreement, in January 2014, engine room crew members of the M/V Selene Leader under the supervision of the defendant transferred oily wastes between oil tanks on board the ship using rubber hoses and then illegally bypassed pollution control equipment and discharged the oily wastes overboard into the ocean.  Before such waste can be discharged into the sea, the law requires that it must first pass through an oil water separator, and the operation must be recorded in the vessel’s oil record book for inspection by the United States Coast Guard.    When the Coast Guard boarded the vessel in Baltimore on Jan. 31, 2014, Mr. Vidad tried to obstruct the Coast Guard’s investigation ...