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Connecticut Shipping Corporation to Pay $4.2 Million for Dumping Oil at Sea
Release Date: 08/12/2004
Contact Information:
Christopher Lagan, 202-564-7338 / lagan.christopher@epa.gov
(08/12/04) OMI Corporation of Stamford, Connecticut, was ordered to pay a $4.2 million fine for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS). The OMI Corporation’s tanker Guadalupe illegally discharged oil using a bypass hose to circumvent on-board pollution control equipment and concealed the discharges through false entries in the ship’s Oil Record Book. The Guadalupe routinely transported crude oil and petroleum products between the United States, Europe, the Caribbean and Latin America. In September 2001, the ship’s second engineer went to a local police department when the ship docked in Cartaret, N.J. He informed the police that he was being ordered to dump oily wastes at sea. The second engineer was awarded $2.1 million of the fine, said to be the largest bounty ever paid to a whistleblower under APPS. The ship’s captain, Ashok Kumar, and chief engineer, Elangovan Mani, have also pleaded guilty in this case. Sentencing took place on August 6 in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey. The case was investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, the New York Office of EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division and the Inspector General’s Office of the U.S. Department of Transportation. It was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey and the Environmental Crimes Section of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C.
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