A US court has sentenced Greece's Avin International and a shipowning affiliate to pay a total of $4m in penalties, according to the US Department of Justice.
The fines, plus a four-year probation, came after the Vardinoyiannis Group company and one-ship owner Nicos IV Special Maritime Enterprises pleaded guilty in November to obstruction of an agency proceeding, failure to report a discharge of oil and three counts of negligent discharge of oil.
The case focuses on illegal releases of oil by the 45,000-dwt product tanker Nicos IV (built 2002) in the summer of 2017 in Texas.
Earlier, master Rafail-Thomas Tsoumakos and chief officer Alexios Thomopoulos were sentenced to each pay fines of $10,000 in the case.
TradeWinds reported back in November that master Rafail-Thomas Tsoumakos and chief officer Alexios Thomopoulos could have faced up to five years behind bars. They had pleaded guilty to making a material false statement to authorities.
According to the US Department of Justice, oil had gotten into the segregated ballast system on the Nicos IV and the ship discharged it twice in the Port of Houston on 6 and 7 July. The discharge was not recorded.
The ballast tanks were opened again en route to Port Arthur and, once in the port, oil began bubbling up next to the vessel.
