U.S. orders OMI to pay $4.2 million for illegal oil dumping

U.S. orders OMI to pay $4.2 million for illegal oil dumping    The U.S. Justice Department ordered Stamford, Conn.-based tanker operator OMI Corp. to pay a $4.2 million fine for illegally dumping thousands of gallons oil waste into the sea.
   U.S. District Judge Katherine S. Hayden also awarded $2.1 million of the fine to a former OMI crewmember who reported the crimes to the government. The reward, issued under a bounty provision in the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, is the largest ever. The law allows the court to award up to half of the criminal fine to those providing information leading to conviction.
   The oil was discharged from the tanker “Guadalupe” in September 2001. “The deliberate discharges were then concealed in a false and fictitious oil record book,” the Justice Department said in an Aug. 6 statement.
   The ship’s captain Ashok Kumar, and chief engineer, Elangovan Mani, have also pled guilty and await sentencing.