Chief Engineer Sentenced News

Chief U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake sentenced Noly Torato Vidad of the Philippines, the Chief Engineer of the cargo vessel M/V Selene Leader, to eight months in prison, followed by one year of supervised release, for obstruction of justice and violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS). The sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein; Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division John C. Cruden; and Coast Guard Captain Kevin Kiefer, Captain of the Port of Baltimore.

New Zealand Fishing Company and Chief Engineer Sentenced for Environmental Crimes and Obstruction of Justice. A New Zealand fishing company that owned and operated the tuna fishing vessel San Nikunau, and a former chief engineer on the ship, were sentenced in federal court today for environmental crimes and obstruction of justice, announced Assistant Attorney General Ignacia S. Moreno of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Ronald C. Machen Jr. Sanford Ltd.

In the district court for the Eastern District of Louisiana, Judge Sarah S. Vance sentenced Michael Murphy, a former chief engineer employed by Offshore Vessels, LLC (OSV), to two years probation. Judge Vance also ordered Murphy to pay a criminal fine of $5,000. On Oct. 20, 2010, Murphy pleaded guilty to a one-count information charging him with submitting a false statement, in violation of 18 U.S.C. 1001. Murphy had served aboard the R/V Laurence M. (L.M.) Gould (R/V Gould), a 2,966 gross ton American-flagged ship owned by OSV that served as an ice-breaking research vessel for the National Science Foundation on research voyages to and from Antarctica. Murphy admitted that on or about Sep.

Dimitrios Dimitrakis, Chief Engineer of the cargo ship M/V New Fortune, was sentenced in federal court in Oakland today to three years probation, a $5,000 fine, and a $100 special assessment for failing to maintain an Oil Record Book, a document required by MARPOL, a treaty ratified and implemented by the United States, United States Attorney Melinda Haag announced. This sentence stems from the overboard disposal of oil residue, sludge, oil, and oily mixtures into the ocean and Dimitrakis’s subsequent efforts to conceal these discharges by falsifying onboard records. According to Court documents, the M/V New Fortune is a ocean-going bulk cargo ship registered in the Marshall Islands that carried bulk products in world-wide commerce.

Carmelo Oria, a Spanish citizen who was the chief engineer on the Cyprus-flagged M/T Nautilus, was sentenced on May 6th in U.S. District Court in Massachusetts for maintaining inaccurate records that concealed a discharge of oil-contaminated water from the bilges of the M/T Nautilus, the Justice Department announced. Oria was sentenced to one month in prison, to be followed by supervised release for a term of two years and a $3,000 fine. Oria pleaded guilty on March 9, 2009, to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships based on his role in discharging oil-contaminated bilge water directly into the ocean from the M/T Nautilus and then failing to record the discharge in the ship's records. The government's investigation began in March 2008, when inspectors from the U.S.

The US Attorney for the District of New Jersey said that the chief engineer of a chemical tanker was sentenced to five months in prison for attempting to cover up illegal discharges of oil sludge and oily waste water. He is also required to pay a $3,000 criminal fine. He had earlier pled guilty to presenting a false oil record book and attempting to obstruct a Coast Guard investigation. Source; HK Law

The Chief Engineer of a Panamanian registered container ship was sentenced today in federal court to charges of conspiracy, obstruction, destruction of evidence, false statements and violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships in connection with the use of a secretly concealed "magic pipe" used to deliberately discharge tons of sludge and oil contaminated waste overboard. Michael J. Sullivan, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts; Sue Ellen Wooldridge, Assistant Attorney General of the Department of Justice's Environment and Natural Resources Division; Rear Admiral David P. Pekoske, Commander, First Coast Guard District; and William Schenkelberg, Special Agent in Charge of the Northeast Region of the U.S.

Noel Abrogar, Chief Engineer of the M/V Magellan Phoenix, was sentenced to imprisonment for one year and one day, and three years of probation for falsifying records that attempted to conceal repeated overboard discharges of oil waste from the ship, the Justice Department announced today. Abrogar pleaded guilty on September 7, 2005 to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, based on his role in discharging oil sludge and oil-contaminated bilge waste directly into the ocean from the M/V Magellan Phoenix and then falsifying the ship’s records to cover up the discharges between December 2004 and March 2005. The government’s investigation began on March 25…

Chun Do Oh, Chief Engineer of the M/V Rubin Stella sentenced to twelve months plus one day in prison for presenting false entries in an Oil Record Book to the United States Coast Guard. These entries concealed the fact that he had directed the dumping of waste oil and oil sludges from this ship into the Pacific Ocean. The sentencing was announced today by John McKay, United States Attorney for the Western District of Washington and Thomas L. Sansonetti, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the United States Department of Justice. The M/V Rubin Stella is a Panamanian-Flagged, bulk carrier vessel of 16,789 gross tons used to transport timber.