The US Department of Justice said in a recent report that a federal jury in North Carolina convicted two Greek shipping lines and two engineers of several offenses related to the dumping of oily waste into the Pacific Ocean.
Oceanic Illsabe Limited and Oceanfleet Shipping Limited, and two of their employees, were found guilty of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS), obstruction of justice, false statements, witness tampering and conspiracy.
The firms will pay $500,000 and other penalties for the offenses. Meanwhile, the two employees, Rustico Ignacio and Cassius Samson, face 20 year jail terms for obstruction of justice charges.
According to the justice department, MV Ocean Hope dumped around 10 metric tons of sludge into the Pacific Ocean in June 2015. Illsabe owns the vessel, while Oceanfleet manages it. The report also showed that the vessel was regularly discharging contaminated water directly overboard. None of these disposals were disclosed as required by law.
