Korean carrier fined for pollution

   The Korean firm Keoje Marine Co. Ltd. and two engineers from the vessel Keoje Tiger pleaded guilty yesterday in federal court in Honolulu to environmental crimes violations.
   Keoje Marine was sentenced to pay a $1.15 million criminal penalty, $250,000 of which will go to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation as a community service payment for projects aimed at protecting and restoring marine resources in Hawaii.
   Keoje Marine pleaded guilty to three felonies:

• Violating the Clean Water Act for the dumping of oily bilge waste into waters off Hawaii that may have affected the natural resources of the United States.
• Violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from ships for covering up the dumping of the oily waste by falsifying the vessel’s oil record book.
• Obstructing justice during a U.S. Coast Guard inspection of the Keoje Tiger in October 2011. 

   The 4,228 gross ton oil tanker that brought fuel and supplies to fishing vessels in the South Pacific as a “floating gas station.”
   The chief engineer and first assistant engineer were each sentenced to three years of probation during which they are banned from entering the United States.