Prive Overseas Marine LLC and Prive Shipping Denizcilik Ticaret which operated tanker P/S Dream were sentenced in a New Orleans Federal Court to pay a $2 million criminal penalty and complete 4 years of probation.
Both had pleaded guilty in May to several charges including conspiracy, obstructing justice and violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS).
Captain of motor tanker P/S Dream, Abdurrahman Korkmaz, has been sentenced to 8 months in prison for APPS offence and obstruction of U.S Coast Guard Investigation.
This is about the investigation of the P/S Dream when it was sailing to New Orleans in January 2023.
Per reports, the senior corporate managers knew that the Captain was going to discharge the oil-contaminated water from a tank on the deck into the ocean.
The captain told the crew members to pump the waste overboard and to clean the tank with soap. They rigged a portable pump to empty the contents overboard in 3 days and the defendants omitted the discharge in the ship’s oil record book.
A crew member told the Coast Guard about it and shared videos of the discharge and the oil sheen.
When the ship reached Louisiana, another crew member gave the Coast Guard a recording of an officer discussing the plan of discharge.
During Coast Guard inspection, falsified logs were presented to conceal that oil-contaminated waste was dumped overboard in violation of MARPOL Annex I, an international treaty that regulates oil pollution from ships.
The shipmaster had informed officials at Prive Shipping that the oil-contaminated waste was dumped overboard.
The $ 2 million penalty includes $500,000 in organisational community service payments that will be used for funding maritime environmental projects in the eastern district of Louisiana, managed by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
Captain Korkmaz is from Turkey while Prive Overseas Marine is in Dubai and Prive Shipping is in Turkey. Another probation condition is that the corporations must adhere to an environmental compliance plan which mandates audit, safety and inspection requirements over the next 4 years.
