Turkish ship management firm pleads guilty of pollution crime

Ciner Gemi Acente Isletni Sanayi Ve Ticaret S.A., a ship management company in Turkey, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in federal court in Baltimore for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.    The U.S. Justice Department on Thursday said Ciner Gemi Acente Isletni Sanayi Ve Ticaret S.A., a ship management company in Turkey, pleaded guilty and was sentenced in federal court in Baltimore for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS).
   Ciner must now pay a criminal penalty of $1.05 million, $150,000 of which will be a community service payment to the National Marine Sanctuary Foundation and used to fund projects to restore marine and aquatic resources in Maryland. 
   The company is also required to implement an environmental compliance plan for its ship and crew.
   Ciner operated the 44,635-ton bulk ship Artvin that transported cargo to and from ports worldwide, including the Port of Baltimore. According to the plea agreement, from March 2014 until November 2014, oily waste water was routinely discharged from the vessel into the sea without the use of required pollution prevention equipment. The ship’s crew also intentionally covered up the illegal discharges of oil waste by falsifying the vessel’s oil record book, the Justice Department said.
   In previous proceedings, the vessel’s chief engineer, John C. Malaki, pleaded guilty for failing to maintain an accurate oil record book, sentenced to six months of probation and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine. The vessel’s second engineer, Ulyses A. Atabay, pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting in falsifying the oil record book and received a sentence of one year of probation.