Prison Sentence News

South Korean authorities cited the risk of Chinese economic retaliation when they charged marine technology firm SI Innotec last year with violating trade laws for its work on Taiwan's new military submarine program, according to a police document seen by Reuters and two people familiar with the matter.In a Feb. 17, 2022, affidavit to a judge seeking the arrest of SI Innotec executive director Park Mal-sik, police said authorities feared a repeat of the sweeping sanctions imposed by Beijing in 2016, after Seoul decided to install THAAD, a U.S. anti-missile system.

The owner and skipper of a rowing vessel has received a 12-month prison sentence after a 21-year-old was lost overboard in the middle of the Atlantic.In February 2016, Michael Johnson was swept overboard by a large wave in the North Atlantic Ocean, between the Canary Islands and Barbados, during a world record row attempt to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 32 days. The seven remaining crew members on board were unable to save Johnson.Simon Chalk, owner of the rowing boat Toby Wallace…

A Danish court on Monday found a Nigerian man guilty of endangering the lives of Danish military personnel in a shooting incident last November involving Denmark's navy and a crew of suspected Nigerian pirates in the Gulf of Guinea.However, the court declined to sentence the Nigerian, Lucky Frances, 40, despite a call from the prosecutor for a prison sentence of 12 to 15 months.As part of international anti-piracy efforts, Denmark deployed a frigate to the Gulf of Guinea in October last year.

A British crew member of the ship Scot Carrier has been found guilty in manslaughter and sentenced to 1.5 years in prison after a ship collision in December last year in the Baltic Sea that killed two Danish seafarers, Danish police said on Thursday.The 30-year old British man was on duty when the 55-meter (180 ft) barge Karin Hoj was in collision with the 90-meter (295 ft) Scot Carrier in fog and darkness off the Danish island of Bornholm.

Fuel supplier Bunker Holding, its chief executive and its subsidiary were convicted by a Danish local court on Tuesday for breaching European Union sanctions by selling jet fuel to war-torn Syria, court documents showed.Bunker Holding, a fuel trader that is also one of the world's largest shipping fuel suppliers, had together with its CEO and subsidiary Dan-Bunkering been charged with breaking sanctions imposed by the European Union in 2011, at the onset of the Syrian civil war.A total of 172,000 tons of jet fuel worth around 647 million Danish crowns ($101 million) was sold in 33 trades betwe

The European Union should step up its assessment of Asian shipbreaking yards to allow the effective implementation of the Hong Kong Convention, said Maritime Strategies International (MSI).In its MSI Foresight, the independent research and consultancy firm noted that by December 31 2018, all vessels flying the flag of an EU member state (around 12% of the current global merchant fleet) will need to comply with the EU Ship Recycling Regulation (SRR); the rule that brought the Hong Kong Convention into EU law.From 2019 onwards, any end-of-life, EU-flagged vessel will need to be scrapped at an approved ship recycling facility, a list which the EU last updated in May.

For the first time in Europe, Public Prosecutors are bringing criminal charges against a ship owner – Seatrade – for having sold vessels to scrap yards in countries “where current ship dismantling methods endanger the lives and health of workers and pollute the environment”. The case is being heard in a Rotterdam Court this week, and the Dutch Public Prosecutor calls for a hefty fine (2.35 mill EUR) and confiscation of the profits Seatrade made on the illegal sale of four ships, as well as a six month prison sentence for three of Seatrade’s top executives. Seatrade is based in Groningen, the Netherlands, and is the largest reefer operator in the world.

A Retired U.S. Navy Captain was sentenced in federal court today to 41 months in prison for his role in a massive bribery and fraud scheme involving foreign defense contractor Leonard Glenn Francis and his firm, Singapore-based, Glenn Defense Marine Asia (GDMA). Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Acting U.S. Attorney Alana W. Robinson Southern District of California, Director Dermot O'Reilly of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service and Director Andrew Traver of the NCIS made the announcement. In addition to the 41-month prison sentence, U.S. District Judge Janis L. Sammartino ordered Michael Brooks, 59, of Fairfax Station, Virginia, to pay a $41,000 fine and $31,000 in restitution to the U.S. Navy.

A former supervisory contracting officer was sentenced to 72 months in prison today for accepting bribe payments in exchange for steering U.S. Navy contracts to the president and chief executive officer of a defense contractor. Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy of the Southern District of California, Director Andrew L. Traver of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) and Director Dermot F. O’Reilly of the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) made the announcement. Paul Simpkins, 62, of Haymarket, Va., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Janis L.

A senior engineering officer employed by an Italian shipping company was sentenced to eight months in prison for deliberately concealing a vessel’s discharge of oily waste into the sea, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Girolamo Curatolo of Custonaci, Sicily, the chief engineer of an oil tanker, the M/T Cielo di Milano, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Susan D. Wigenton to an information charging him with one count of conspiring to violate the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. Judge Wigenton imposed the sentence November 21 in Newark federal court. According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court, the vessel, owned by D’Amico Shipping Italia S.p.A.

The prison sentence against the former captain of the Costa Concordia cruise liner for his role in the deadly 2012 shipwreck was upheld on Tuesday by an Italian court. Both Francesco Schettino, who was commanding the ship when it hit rocks off the Tuscan island of Giglio, killing 32 people, and the prosecutor had appealed against the 16 years and one month sentence handed down last year. But the Florence appeals court upheld the term. Schettino was found guilty last year by a different court of multiple manslaughter…

U.K. skipper Alexander Baird, who pleaded guilty to a charge of not operating his ship in a safe manner, has been sent to prison following a hearing April 21 at Mold Crown Court, where he received a custodial sentence totaling nine months. Baird admitted the charge which covered a number of deficiencies found on his fishing vessel, St Amant. Baird was skipper of the vessel between November 2007 and April 2012. During that period St Amant was inspected on nine occasions and a number of problems found. These included safety equipment not working or not ready for immediate use, cluttered deck, failure to brief crew on emergency procedures or holding drills and making sure they had taken legally-required safety courses.

Vacations on a ship – 125 years ago that was considered revolutionary. What many don’t know is that the modern cruises already started in 1891 – on a Hapag ship. On a cold January morning, nearly 125 years ago, nobody could have guessed that the idea would turn into such a success story. In any case, on January 22, 1891, it seemed as if all of Cuxhaven had turned out to marvel at the group of “intrepid travelers” ­ making their way up the gangway of Hapag’s flagship, the “Augusta…

Schettino accused over loss of cruiseship in January 2012. Charges include manslaughter, causing shipwreck, abandoning ship. The former captain of the doomed Costa Concordia on Wednesday gave his final address to a court where he is being tried over the loss of the giant cruiseliner, saying he had been made a scapegoat in a disaster in which 32 people died in January 2012. The court in Grosseto, Italy, may hand down a verdict as early as Wednesday evening for Schettino, 54, on charges of multiple manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning his ship, defence lawyers said. Investigators severely criticised his handling of the disaster…

Former Afloat Programs Manager at the United States Navy Military Sealift Command (MSC), Kenny E. Toy, was sentenced to 96 months in prison for receiving bribes, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Toy was sentenced by United States Chief Judge Rebecca Beach Smith of the Eastern District of Virginia Tuesday, July 29. Toy pleaded guilty on Feb. 12, 2014 to criminal information charging him with one count of bribery. According to Toy’s plea agreement, he was employed as the Afloat Programs Manager in the N6 Command…

At a hearing today at Truro Crown Court, the owner/skipper of a fishing boat was handed a 28 day prison sentence - suspended for two years - and ordered to pay £500 in costs after pleading guilty to breaches of the International regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea. Between January 8, 2013 and June 3, 2013 Dean James Rollason was observed on five occasions operating a fishing vessel without navigation lights at night. The incidents occurred in the Fowey River, River Camel estuary, Penryn River and off Looe in Cornwall. Several agencies reported the sightings to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) who instigated legal action after reviewing the evidence. Four of the offences were committed in a small fishing vessel Top Dog, owned by Rollason.

EU NAVFOR said it welcomed the first judgment yesterday in a Kenyan prosecution in connection with the interdiction of a pirate group by an EU NAVFOR warship. The conviction involved seven Somali men accused of acts of piracy. The presiding Chief Magistrate, the Hon Rosemelle Mutoka CM, delivered the verdict at the Mombasa Law Courts on 6 September, sentencing the seven Somali men accused to prison sentences of five years as from the judgement date. The conviction relates to the attack on the FGS Spessart, a Rhoen – class tanker of the German Navy, on 29 March 2009. The attack by seven men aboard a single pirate skiff was repelled by the onboard security detail.

INTERTANKO applauds the result of a plea bargaining agreement in the U.S. whereby a Somali national, who a few weeks ago escaped trial when a U.S. federal judge threw out a case accusing him and five colleagues of piracy, has pleaded guilty to piracy-related acts and will receive a significant prison sentence. Jama Idle Ibrahim, who took part 10 April in an attack on a U.S. Navy vessel, USS Ashland, in the Gulf of Aden after mistaking it for a merchant ship, has pleaded guilty to piracy-related acts including attacking to plunder a vessel, engaging in an act of violence against people on a vessel, and the use a firearm during a crime of violence.

John Joseph Cota, the pilot who caused the Cosco Busan, a 900-ft long container ship, to collide with the San Francisco Bay Bridge and discharge approximately 53,000 gallons of oil into San Francisco Bay, was sentenced to serve 10 months in federal prison by U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston for the Northern District of California, the Justice Department announced. Cota, who was a licensed bar pilot at the time of the collision, gave commands that caused the 65,131-ton Hong Kong-registered ship to collide with the bridge on Nov. 7, 2007. Cota was sentenced according to an agreement in which he pleaded guilty to negligently causing discharge of a harmful quantity of oil in violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA)…

Companies exporting chemicals to the EU should include documentation proving they have met all current REACH obligations, REACH experts of BMT Group subsidiaries BMT Designers & Planners and BMT Cordah Ltd, have warned. The warning comes after a shipment of chemicals from one of BMT’s US clients was delayed at customs at an EU port as officials demanded evidence of pre-registration and compliance with the EU REACH regulation. However, according to the UK Competent Authority for REACH, the Health and Safety Executive, the regulation does not require evidence of pre-registration to be provided either to the customer (in this case the importer) or to the customs authorities.

The Polish chief officer of a cargo vessel that ran aground off the coast of Scotland reportedly admitted that he was drunk at the time. Jerzy Pawluk pleaded guilty to being drunk in charge of the Bahamian-registered freighter Roustel and endangering the lives of his crew. Magistrates referred the matter to Newcastle Crown Court, saying that only a prison sentence would be appropriate. The offense - conduct endangering ships, structures or individuals - carries a jail term of up to two years and a fine. He was ordered held on bail. The Roustel ran aground in the early hours of Tuesday morning off the east coast of Scotland between Arbroath and Montrose. After being alerted by the crew, coastguards pulled the 892 gross ton vessel off the rocks. No injuries were reported.