Maltese ship owner charged with illegal dumping

Maltese ship owner charged with illegal dumping    An Oakland federal grand jury handed down multiple criminal charges against Maltese ship owner Casilda Shipping on Wednesday, charging the firm with illegally dumping waste products from one of its cargo vessels and attempting to cover up the dumping.
   Casilda and vessel operator Genesis Seatrading of Greece were each charged with four counts of falsifying a log book, three charges regarding the dumping itself, making false statements to the U.S. Coast Guard, and various other charges related to the incident.
   The charges were that between July 2007 and May 2008 the chief engineer of the 23,000-ton cargo vessel Rio Gold ordered the construction and use of a drainage bypass to allow oil waste and trash to circumvent the vessel's antipollution equipment while the vessel was at sea. Under the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, vessels are required to process waste before discharging it and keep records of any discharges.
   Pantelis Thomas, chief engineer aboard the Rio Gold, was also named in four counts of falsifying a log book.
   According to the indictment, Thomas ordered crewmembers aboard the Rio Gold to dump the contents of two large plastic barrels through the bypass equipment and into the ocean. The barrels, according to the crewmembers, contained oil sludge and hydrochloric acid. Logs were later falsified to show that no discharge had occurred.
   The arraignment is set for July 10 at 9:30 a.m. in San Francisco.