The U.S. Department of Justice stated that a Hong Kong-based
ship management company pled guilty and was sentenced to pay a criminal fine of $10 million for engaging in conspiracy, obstruction of justice, false statements, and violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. The company was also ordered to pay $500,000 for a program to provide environmental education to mariners visiting Massachusetts ports and inform them how to report environmental crimes to the U.S. Coast Guard. The conviction relates to using a by-pass pipe on a container ship to circumvent the oily water separator and to making false entries in the oil record book.