Fleet Management agrees to pay $10 million fine

Fleet Management agrees to pay $10 million fine    The manager of the COSCO Busan, the ship that struck the San Francisco Bay Bridge in 2007, resulting in a spill of 50,000 gallons of fuel oil, has agreed to pay a $10 million fine.
   The U.S. Justice Department said Fleet Management Ltd., a Hong Kong-based ship management firm, pleaded guilty Thursday to a criminal violation of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990. Fleet Management also pleaded guilty to felony obstruction of justice and false statement charges for creating false and forged documents after the crash at the direction of shore-based supervisors with intent to deceive the U.S. Coast Guard.
   The guilty plea was made as part of a plea agreement with the government that is subject to approval by Judge Susan Illston of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. If the plea terms are approved by the court, Fleet has agreed to pay a $10 million criminal penalty. Of this amount, $2 million would be devoted to fund marine environmental projects in San Francisco Bay.
   The plea agreement also calls for Fleet to implement a comprehensive compliance plan that would include heightened training and voyage planning for ships engaged in trade in the United States. The training will focus on better preparing masters for command of Fleet's vessels, providing classroom and shipboard navigation training to those who navigate Fleet's vessels, and ensuring that all Fleet vessels calling in U.S. ports create a thorough plan for how they will navigate in those ports. The new training and voyage planning requirements will be subject to auditing and the court's supervision.
   The Justice Department announcement of the plea is here.