US convicts 2 Filipinos facing 20 years for dumping oil at sea

M/V Ocean Hope dumped tons of oil and sludge in the ocean. VESSEL FINDER

SAN FRANCISCO – Two Filipino senior ship engineers face 20 years in prison after being found guilty of dumping pollutants at sea and attempting to hide the deed from US authorities.

A federal jury in Greenville, North Carolina, convicted Oceanic Illsabe Limited, Oceanfleet Shipping Limited and two of their employees, senior engineering officers Rustico Ignacio and Cassius Samson, both Filipinos, of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS), obstruction of justice, false statements, witness tampering and conspiracy, according a report by the Maritime Executive.

Oceanic Illsabe Limited owns the M/V Ocean Hope, a large general cargo vessel that dumped tons of oily waste into the Pacific Ocean last year. Oceanfleet Shipping Limited was the managing operator of the vessel. Both companies operate out of Greece.

Oceanic and Oceanfleet were convicted of one count of conspiracy, one count of violating APPS, two counts of obstruction of justice, one count of false statements and four counts of witness tampering.

Ignacio was convicted of one count of conspiracy, one count of violating APPS, one count of obstruction of justice and two counts of witness tampering.

Samson was convicted of one count of conspiracy, one count of violating APPS, two counts of obstruction of justice, one count of false statements and three counts of witness tampering.

The companies could be fined up to $500,000 per count, in addition to other possible penalties. Ignacio and Samson face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the obstruction of justice charges.

In June 2015, M/V Ocean Hope discharged around ten metric tons of sludge into the ocean and also regularly pumped contaminated water overboard. None of these discharges were disclosed as required.

Evidence showed that the companies knew that their ship had not unloaded any oil sludge at port since September 2014 and that it often did not use its oil-water separator. Second Engineer Samson instead ordered crewmembers to use a “magic pipe” to bypass the vessel’s oil-water separator and pump oil sludge directly into the ocean.

Crewmembers also were ordered to dump oily water from the vessel’s bilges into the sea to several times a week. Chief Engineer Ignacio knew and approved of the dumping. The engineers also used a tank designated for oily wastes to store diesel fuel for sale on the black market.

At the Port of Wilmington, North Carolina, the companies and the two engineers filed false oil reports to U.S. Coast Guard inspectors. The defendants ordered lower-level crewmembers to lie to Coast Guard personnel, when the dumping was discovered.