A court in Portland, Maine, has fined a German shipping company, MST, USD3.2 million for its role in the cover-up of pollution from its Liberia-flagged vessel Marguerita in July 2017. The US coastguard inspected the vessel after whistleblowers in the crew raised their concerns.
The company, which has previously been found guilty of similar offences, was sentenced for its obstruction of justice and maintaining false official records to conceal deliberate pollution from the ship. Over a nine-month period of calls into the port, the vessel discharged oily bilge waste intentionally through the use of a “magic pipe” to bypass the required pollution prevention equipment, and then falsified the logbook records.
The company was also given a four-year term of probation during which its vessels will be required to implement an environmental compliance plan, including independent inspections.
Assistant attorney general Jeffrey Bossert Clark said: “This company is a repeat offender, which makes plain that it has shown contempt for the rule of law.” MST had been convicted of similar environmental crimes in Minnesota in 2016 after one of its ships was found to have covered up pollution into the Great Lakes; it then received a fine of almost one million US dollars.
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