Tanker company, seamen convicted in pollution case

A DSD Shipping company memo warned employees “could get caught for polluting” if an oily-water separator on the vessel Stavanger Blossom was not fixed, and now three seamen face the possibility of up to 20 years in prison.    The Justice Department said a federal jury in Mobile, Alabama, has convicted Det Stavangerske Dampskibsselskab AS (DSD Shipping) and three employees with obstructing justice, violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS), witness tampering, and conspiracy.
   DSD Shipping is a Norwegian-based shipping company that operates crude oil tankers, including the Stavanger Blossom.
   DOJ said evidence presented during trial demonstrated that in January 2010, DSD Shipping knew the oily-water separator aboard the ship was inoperable, even noting in an internal memo, that individuals “could get caught for polluting” if the problem was not addressed.
   Rather than repairing or replacing the separator, the machine was bypassed and oily wastes were discharged into the ocean.
   “During the last months of the vessel’s operation prior to its arrival in the Port of Mobile, the Stavanger Blossom discharged approximately 20,000 gallons of oil-contaminated waste water,” said DOJ.
   According to court documents, evidence showed “DSD Shipping employees intentionally discharged fuel oil sludge directly into the ocean. Specifically, crewmembers cleaned the vessel’s fuel oil sludge tank, removed approximately 264 gallons of sludge and placed the waste oil into plastic garbage bags.”
   After hiding the sludge bags aboard the ship from port authorities in Mexico, the Department of Justice said senior engineering officers Xiaobing Chen and Xin Zhong “ordered crewmembers to move as many as 100 sludge bags to the deck of the vessel. There, Zhong threw the sludge bags overboard directly into the ocean.”
   DSD Shipping, Chen, Zhong, another engineering officer named Bo Gao, and an employee named Daniel Paul Dancu who pleaded guilty in October, all attempted to hide the discharges from the U.S. Coast Guard “by making false and fictitious entries in the vessel’s oil record book and garbage record book. Further, after arriving in Mobile, Chen and Zhong lied to the U.S. Coast Guard about the discharge of sludge and ordered lower ranking crewmembers to do the same,” said DOJ.
   DSD Shipping was convicted of one count of conspiracy, three counts of violating APPS, three counts of obstruction of justice and one count of witness tampering. Gao was convicted of one count of conspiracy and two counts of obstruction of justice. Chen was convicted of one count of violating APPS, three counts of obstruction of justice and one count of witness tampering. Zhong was convicted of two counts of violating APPS, two counts of obstruction of justice and one count of witness tampering. DSD Shipping could be fined up to $500,000 per count, in addition to other possible penalties, while Gao, Chen and Zhong face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the obstruction of justice charges.
   “We hope this conviction sends a strong message to shippers worldwide that this activity must end, and we will vigorously prosecute those who continue this criminal behavior,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden.