The legal charges were related to a previous investigation about the January 2023 incident. DOJ says the Dream was traveling to New Orleans when it is alleged the ship’s captain ordered the crew to discharge oil-contaminated waste from a residual tank on deck into the ocean. Photo courtesy U.S. Coast Guard/UPI
Sept. 27 (UPI) — A Turkish shipping company and its United Arab Emirates-based partner were sentenced and fined $2 million by the United States after a ship’s captain ordered his crew to dump polluted waste overboard into the ocean and allegedly tried to cover it up, the U.S. Justice Department said Friday.
On Thursday, Prive Shipping Denizcilik Ticaret, headquarted in Turkey, and its Dubai-based subsidiary company Prive Overseas Marine LLC were fined $2M and sentenced to a four-year probation by a New Orleans court as the operators of the shipping tanker “P/S Dream,” according to new information by DOJ.
That ship’s captain, Abdurrahman Korkmaz, was given an eight month prison sentence on Sept. 10 for obstruction of a U.S. Coast Guard investigation and violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.
As a condition of probation, the two aligned international shipping corporations must adhere to an environmental compliance plan and face safety and inspection requirements over the next four years.
In May, the two companies pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and violating the APPS.
The legal charges were related to a previous investigation about the January 2023 incident. DOJ says the Dream was traveling to New Orleans when Korkmaz ordered the crew to discharge oil-contaminated waste from a residual tank on deck into the Atlantic Ocean.
The seamen rigged a portable pump to empty the contents overboard over a three day timespan. The captain then told his crew to clean the tank with soap, Justice officials said.
The defendants then falsified the vessel’s oil record book by omitting the discharge.
According to the federal government, senior corporate managers were aware that Korkmaz, a Turkish national, had arranged the scheme and multiple crew members came forward to alert authorities as to what took place.
In the evidence was a recording of a ship officer discussing the polluted discharge.
Given to the U.S. Coast Guard during inspection, the falsified logs were intended to “conceal the fact that the crew had dumped oil-contaminated waste overboard in violation of MARPOL Annex I,” which is an international treaty regulating oil pollution from ships, the Justice Department added.
But from the big toxic mess came a little good, perhaps.
From the $2M criminal penalty will come at least $500,000 in “organizational community service payments,” according to the government, to help pay for various ongoing maritime preservation and environmental projects in eastern Louisiana‘s fragile coastline managed by the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation, established by Congress.
