US courts have found two seafarers from the 2014-built chemical tanker Green Sky guilt of illegally dumping oily water into US waters, falsifying oil record books, and obstructing the course of justice.
The charges relate to events in 2015 that contravened the US Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.
A federal jury in Charleston, South Carolina, convicted two chief engineers from the vessel; Herbert Julian, who served as chief engineer of the vessel from Aug 3 to Sept 4, 2015 and Panagiotis Koutoukakis, chief engineer from Feb 1 to Aug 3, 2015.
The vessels operating company Aegean Shipping Management has also pleaded guilty, and agreed to a $2m fine.
The court heard how Liberia-registered Green Sky had unusual internal leaks that produced greater quantities of oily waste than normal, which continuously filled the engine room bilges.
Rather than remove the bilge water into a storage tank for proper disposal, the vessels engineers took to illegally discharging it overboard using improvised by-pass piping, often known as a magic pipe.
“This case involved egregious violations of US and international laws that are key to protecting the oceans from pollution, and deliberate efforts to mislead Coast Guard officials about these criminal acts,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General Wood. “ The Department of Justice will continue to aggressively prosecute criminal acts that pollute the oceans.”
Sentencing of the company and defendants Julian and Koutoukakis will take place at a date that will be set by the court. At trial, the second engineer Nikolaos Bounovas was acquitted of all charges against him. The previously convicted Captain, Genaro Anciano, testified at the trial. His sentencing has yet to be scheduled.
