October 15, 2019

Nederland Shipping Company and Chartworld Shipping Company, the Liberia-incorporated owners and operators of a the cargo ship M/V NEDERLAND REEFER, have agreed to pay $1.8 million for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS).  During a Coast Guard inspection of the ship at a port in Delaware, inspectors found that chief engineer Vasileios Mazarakis was routinely tricking an oil content monitoring device into discharging oily water at sea before it could be processed by an Oily Water Separator (OWS), then falsifying the ship’s Oil Record Book (ORB).  Mazarakis eventually plead guilty to falsifying the ORB as well as obstructing the Coast Guard’s investigation.  The companies will be placed on a four-year probation period to ensure that company ships entering U.S. waters comply with applicable maritime laws.  The APPS has a whistleblower reward provisions that incentivizes the reporting of this sort of illegal activity. DOJ

Tagged in: Environmental Fraud,