Italian shipping company fined for pollution

   An Italian shipowner and its chief engineer on one of its ships were sentenced Wenesday in federal court in Mobile, Ala., for deliberately falsifying records to conceal discharges of oily wastewater into the sea.
   Giusseppe Bottiglieri Shipping Company S.P.A. was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Ginny Granade in the Southern District of Alabama to pay a $1 million criminal fine, serve four years probation, and make a $300,000 community service payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The company must also fund and implement a comprehensive environmental compliance plan during the term of probation. Chief Engineer Vito La Forgia was sentenced by Judge Granade to one month in jail.
   The shipping company pleaded guilty on July 11 to a violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships for failing to properly maintain an oil record book as required by federal and international law. La Forgia also pleaded guilty on July 12 to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.