Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement has agreed to pay a $1.75m fine for the illegal discharge by one of its ships ing bilge waste off Hawaii last year.
On Monday, it pleaded guilty in a US federal court one count of maintaining false and incomplete records – a felony violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.
This is the largest fine ever imposed in the District of Hawaii for this type of offense, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) said.
Chief engineer Skenda Reddy and second engineer Padmanaban Samirajan previously pleaded guilty to their involvement in the offense.
The fine related to the discharge of bilge waste from the 45,650-dwt products tanker Topaz Express (built 2009) took place between May and July 2019.
According to court documents and information presented in court, the defendants illegally dumped bilge waste from the Hong Kong-flagged vessel “directly into the ocean, without properly processing it through pollution prevention equipment”.
The defendants are also said to have admitted that these illegal discharges were “not recorded in the vessel’s oil record book as required by law”.
The DoJ alleges that Bernhard Schulte, acting through Reddy and Samirajan, its employees, used a “portable pneumatic pump and hose to bypass the ship’s pollution prevention equipment”.
Additionally, during the US Coast Guard’s inspection of the Topaz Express, Reddy is said to have “destroyed paper sounding sheets” and “altered a copy of the vessel’s electronic sounding log”, in an effort to conceal how much bilge waste had been discharged overboard without being processed through the vessel’s pollution prevention equipment.
Under the terms of the plea agreement, Bernhard Schulte must also serve a four-year term of probation as well as implement a robust environmental compliance plan, which applies to all 38 vessels operated by the company that call on US ports.
“This case was built on the hard work of US Coast Guard inspectors and investigators and we appreciate the strong partnership with the Department of Justice to hold polluters accountable,” said Captain Arex Avanni, commander, US Coast Guard Sector Honolulu.
“All vessel owners and operators are responsible for maintaining their vessels and preventing illegal discharges of oily wastes into the ocean.
“We are committed to the people of Hawaii to protect our waters and the Pacific Ocean from the damage caused by pollution from illegal dumping.”
