An Interunity Management chief engineer has been found guilty in a US pollution case that could see him go to jail.
Denys Korotkiy was convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice, obstruction of justice and failure to maintain an accurate oil record book, following a five-day federal trial in San Diego, California.
The case arose from a May 2022 inspection of the 12,800-dwt multipurpose heavylifter Donald (built 2006).
Germany’s Interunity had previously pleaded guilty to maintaining false and incomplete records relating to the discharge of oily bilge water.
The ship has since been renamed Gaja under the ownership of Jens & Waller.
The US Department of Justice said the evidence showed that oily bilge water was illegally dumped from the Donald directly into the ocean through the sewage holding tank without being properly processed through required pollution prevention equipment.
The illegal discharges were not recorded.
Korotkiy was found to have made false and fictitious entries in the oil record book, claiming transfers of oily bilge had been made from the engine room bilge wells to the ship’s bilge holding tank.
“Finally, the evidence showed that Korotkiy conspired with others to obstruct the US Coast Guard’s inspection and investigation into the mishandling of oily bilge water…” the department said.
The engineer was remanded in custody.
Sentencing is scheduled for 1 September.
Offences taken seriously
The charges carry maximum penalties ranging from five to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $500,000.
“The illegal discharge of oily bilge water at sea and the falsification and destruction of records in order to obstruct the US’ ability to investigate those discharges are crimes we take seriously,” said assistant attorney general Todd Kim.
The operator will pay a $1.25m fine and serve a four-year probation.
