.png)
The US Department of Justice reports that two related companies that operated the motor tanker PS Dream – Prive Overseas Marine and Prive Shipping Denizcilik Ticaret – have pleaded guilty to conspiracy, knowingly violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS), and obstruction of justice related to the falsification of the tanker's oil record book, which is a required log.
The guilty pleas were entered in federal court in New Orleans before Chief US District Court Judge Nannette Jolivette Brown. If the court approves the plea agreement, the companies will be fined a total of US$2 million and serve four years of probation.
Separate charges have been filed against Captain Abdurrahman Korkmaz, a Turkish national who was the ship's master.
The criminal case stems from the report of a crewmember who, on January 11, 2023, contacted the US Coast Guard in New Orleans, which was the next port-of-call, and shared a video showing oil being pumped overboard and trailing behind the tanker.
When the ship arrived in New Orleans two weeks later, this individual and another crewmember blew the whistle and provided evidence to the coast guard. Video and photographic images were filed in court today by the prosecutors.
The falsified logs, presented to the coast guard during its inspection, were intended to conceal the fact that the crew had dumped oil-contaminated waste overboard on the voyage to New Orleans and was not complying with MARPOL Annex I, an international treaty regulating oil pollution from ships.
According to court documents, the ship's master ordered crewmembers to pump overboard from the residual oil tank, which contained oily waste.
A portable pump placed inside the tank and connected to a long flexible hose was used to discharge directly into the ocean without any required pollution prevention equipment or monitoring.
The waste oil, including sludge, originated in the engine room and had been improperly transferred into the residual oil tank on the deck of the ship by a prior crew. Senior managers at Prive Shipping were aware that the oil-contaminated waste remained in the tank and were informed by the ship's master that it had been dumped overboard.
The proposed US$2 million criminal penalty includes US$500,000 in organisational community service payments that will fund various maritime environmental projects in the Eastern District of Louisiana. Those projects will be managed by the congressionally established National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
The court also has authority to award up to US$500,000, half of the APPS portion of the fine, to the whistleblowers that provided evidence leading to conviction.
Prive Overseas Marine is based in Dubai and Prive Shipping is based in Turkey. The corporations were charged with four felonies: conspiracy, an APPS violation, and two counts of obstruction of justice.
Captain Korkmaz was charged with two counts: a violation of APPS and obstructing the coast guard's inspection of the ship.
