A Greek shipping company was fined $4.9 million (euro3.4 million) in federal court for repeatedly dumping waste oil into international waters and lying about it.
Ionia Management was convicted in September after a two-week trial on 13 counts of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, three counts of falsifying records in a federal investigation, one count of obstruction of justice, and one count of conspiracy.
Prosecutors say Ionia dumped waste oil several times between January 2006 and March 2007. The crew of its ship Kriton routinely dumped sludge and bilge water into the sea without recording the discharges, prosecutors said. The company was accused of presenting false discharge records to the Coast Guard in ports in Connecticut, Florida, New York and the Virgin Islands.
In addition to the fine, U.S. District Judge Janet Bond Arterton appointed a Special Master to oversee the company's record keeping and hold hearing every six months to review Ionia's records. The judge also ruled that no ships owned by Ionia Management will be permitted into U.S. ports without first installing special monitoring equipment.
The company said in court documents that it has cooperated with the investigation, took significant measures to improve its supervision of staff and suffered significant costs and business disruptions as a result of the case. Senior company officials were not aware of and would not condone intentional oil discharges into the sea, the company said.
Prosecutors were seeking fines of $9 million (euro6.2 million), but say the penalties imposed Friday should send a clear message that intentional pollution of international waters will not be tolerated.
The U.S. Coast Guard and Environmental Protection Agency conducted the investigation, with assistance from authorities in the Netherlands.
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