Greek owner Liquimar Tankers, along with its affiliate company Evridiki Navigation and a chief engineer Nikolaos Vastardis, have been convicted by a federal jury in the US for a series of charges relating to ocean pollution.
The charges include violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, falsifying ship’s documents, obstructing a US Coast Guard inspection, and making false statements to US Coast Guard inspectors.
The crimes were committed in order to conceal Vastardis’ deliberate bypassing of required pollution prevention equipment in order to illegally discharge oil-contaminated bilge waste overboard from the 167,300 dwt suezmax oil tanker Evridiki near Delaware Bay in the US in March.
near Delaware Bay in the US in March.“This case demonstrates that those who pollute our oceans and deliberately mislead Coast Guard officials will be brought to justice,” said assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
“The Department of Justice will continue to support the important work of the Coast Guard to deter deliberate vessel pollution,” he added.
The court will conduct sentencing on a date to be determined.
