National Fish Wildlife Foundation News

BP says it is supporting economic and environmental efforts in the Gulf of Mexico and is committing huge funding. To date, BP has spent over $14 billion in response and clean-up costs and have paid $9.9 billion in claims, advances and settlements to individuals, businesses and governments. The company has also committed to provide up to $1 billion to fund early restoration projects. In 2011, BP committed $174 million to be distributed to Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Florida over a three-year period to promote tourism, seafood marketing and testing. This is in addition to the $87 million in tourism grants provided to the states by BP in 2010.

DC Federal Court plea agreement requires Singapore-based Pacific International Lines, to pay US$2.2-million. The offenses relate to the operation of the company's container shilp M/V Southern Lily 2 in June 2012. The company previously pleaded guilty to three felony charges that it made false statements to the U.S. Coast Guard and violated the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships by concealing illegal waste water operations and discharges in a falsified oil record book – a required…

Singapore Ship Operator and Engineers Plead Guilty to Crimes Related to Pollution from Cargo Ship Traveling to Mobile, Alabama; Company Sentenced to Pay $1.2 Million Criminal Penalty. A ship management company headquartered in Singapore pleaded guilty and was sentenced today in federal court in Mobile for deliberately falsifying records to conceal pollution discharges from the ship directly into the sea. Target Ship Management Pte. Ltd., the operator of the M/V Gaurav Prem, pleaded…

Horizon Lines reaches agreement with U.S. Department of Justice on Environmental Record-Keeping Incident. Horizon Lines, Inc. today announced that its Horizon Lines, LLC operating subsidiary has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice, under which the ocean cargo carrier will plead guilty to two counts of providing federal authorities with false vessel oil record-keeping entries on a containership in the U.S. West Coast-Hawaii service. Under the agreement…

Two Shipping Corporations Plead Guilty and Are Sentenced in Maryland for Obstruction of Justice and Environmental Crimes; Companies Each Sentenced to Pay $1.2 Million, Including $550,000 to Benefit Chesapeake Bay. Two corporations pleaded guilty today in separate hearings in Baltimore for their role in managing and owning a ship engaged in deliberate discharges of waste oil and plastic garbage. The companies were each sentenced by U.S. District Judge Marvin Garbis to pay $1.2…

Irika Shipping S.A., a ship management corporation registered in Panama and doing business in Greece, pleaded guilty on July 8, 2010 before Maryland U.S. District Court Judge Frederick J. Motz, to felony obstruction of justice charges and violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships related to concealing deliberate vessel pollution from the M/V Iorana, a Greek flagged cargo ship that made port calls in Baltimore, Tacoma, Wash., and New Orleans. According to the multi-district plea agreement arising out of charges brought in the District of Maryland, Western District of Washington, and Eastern District of Louisiana, Irika Shipping has agreed to pay a $4m total penalty…

The U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey said that a foreign shipping company contributed $100,000 to the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation. The money was a court-ordered community service payment following the company’s guilty plea to making a false statement by presenting fraudulent oil record books to the US Coast Guard. The company also paid a $400,000 criminal fine. Source: HK Law

A Japanese shipping company admitted that it intentionally failed to maintain required records concerning overboard discharges of oil sludge and oil-contaminated bilge water from one of its cargo ships, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Department of Justice, Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency announced. MK Shipmanagement Company, Ltd. pleaded guilty to one felony count of intentionally failing to maintain an oil record book, in violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, and will pay a total of $350,000 in criminal fines and community service payments. U.S. District Judge William H. Walls took the guilty plea from the corporation. Sentencing is scheduled for July 18.

MSC Ship Management (Hong Kong) Limited—a Hong Kong-based container ship company—has agreed to plead guilty to charges that it engaged in conspiracy, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, false statements and violated the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, the Department of Justice announced today. Per the terms of a plea agreement that must be approved by the court, MSC Ship Management will pay $10.5 million in penalties. This is the largest fine in which a single vessel has been charged with deliberate pollution and the largest criminal fine paid by a defendant in an environmental case in Massachusetts history. According to the plea agreement…