New England ship company admits to dumping oil waste in Gulf of Mexico
On Tuesday, company officials of Eagle Ship Management LLC pleaded guilty to violations of the 1980 Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and was given a fine of more than $1.7 million.
"Today's announcement sends a clear message intended to deter deliberate pollution," stated Acting U.S. Attorney Michael M. Simpson for Louisiana's Eastern District. "This office will continue to work with our agency partners to enforce the laws that were designed to protect U.S. ports and waters."
In addition, the Stamford-based ESM would be ordered to serve a four-year probation term to include an external company audit by an independent source if court-approved.
The U.S. Coast Guard initiated its investigation after a crew member on the foreign-flagged bulk vessel "Gannet Bulker" sent it a tip on social media in March 2021 soon after the purported incident near the Mississippi River's mouth, according to court documents.
ESM admitted in its guilty plea that Gannet ship officers "engaged in a variety of obstructive acts to conceal the internal flooding that was caused by a botched repair."
Records show the unidentified crewman said the Gannet's engine room flooded and that the ship's oil-contaminated bilge pumper offloaded the toxic waste overnight.
Flooded bilges can pose a number of dangers to a ship and its crew.
Federal officials noted that the incident took place without required safety equipment or proper bookkeeping.
"The criminal conduct involved here was serious, including intentional pollution and a deliberate coverup," said Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General Adam Gustafson of DOJ's environment and natural resources division.
Meanwhile, the ship's unidentified captain was prosecuted and later sentence to a year and a day behind bars for his role in the incident.
Officials stated that among the obstructive acts was retaliation against a whistleblower with a known identity to the company. They added that Gannet's senior officer and other crew members lied to Coast Guard officials, destroyed control room information as evidence and "created false and backdated personnel evaluations intended to discredit the whistleblower."
It's the second known similar instance in recent years of a ship offloading oil into the waters off the coast of New Orleans.
In September, the captain of a Turkish ship was given eight months in prison and his company fined $2 million after crew, likewise, rid their carrier of oil waste into open water.
Sentencing for Connecticut's Eagle Ship Management is scheduled for October 16.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
UPI
2 hours ago
- UPI
Advocates call for commuting execution of Tennessee man with dementia
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee speaks at the 2024 Republican National Convention at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, in 2024. Mental health advocates called on Lee Thursday to commute the death sentence of an intellectually disabled man. File photo by Tannen Maury/UPI | License Photo July 24 (UPI) -- Family members, mental health service providers and advocates for people with disabilities Thursday called on Tenn. Gov. Bill Lee to stop the scheduled Aug. 5 execution of Byron Black, a man diagnosed with dementia and brain damage. Advocates called on Lee to instead commute Black's death sentence to life in prison which they say is in accordance with the United States and Tennessee constitutions. "A man should not be executed because his lawyers were too diligent in bringing his case to the courts expeditiously in 2004 when the Tennessee ID standards were inaccurate," said Donna Destefano, a 30-year advocate for Tennessee residents with disabilities. "There is no doubt that Mr. Black meets the medical standard for ID, and that his execution would not only be unconstitutional but inconsistent with our Tennessee values that protect people with intellectual disability." Advocates wrote a letter contending that if Black were sentenced today, the death penalty would not be applicable under current law. Medical experts and Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk. Black was sentenced to death for killing Angela Clay and her 9 and 6 year-old daughters. During the 1989 trial, one of Black's lawyers argued that his client was "delusional about what was going on," local media reported. Ross Alderman, Black's defense attorney at the time of the trial, had argued that his client was mentally incompetent even prior to the murders, did not understand the implications of witness testimony and asked if it was his time to testify after the jury had already left the courtroom. The jury sentenced Black to death despite questions about his mental incompetency, but his advocates and a team of attorneys have worked to support Alderman's initial impressions of Black's mental capacity.
UPI
4 hours ago
- UPI
Arizona woman imprisoned for $17M North Korean remote workers scheme
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced an Arizona woman to 102 months in prison for operating a laptop farm that helped North Korean operatives fraudulently get remote work at U.S. companies. File Photo (2018) by Andrew Wong/UPI | License Photo July 24 (UPI) -- Arizona resident Christina Chapman must serve 102 months in prison for her role in a $17 million scheme to help North Koreans obtain remote positions with U.S. tech firms. U.S District Court for the District of Columbia Judge Randolph Moss on Thursday sentenced Chapman, 50, after she entered a guilty plea in February to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to launder monetary instruments on behalf of the government of North Korea. Chapman participated in a "fraudulent scheme that assisted North Korean workers -- posing as U.S. citizens and residents -- in obtaining and working in remote [Internet technology] positions at more than 300 U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro and Acting Assistant Attorney General Matthew Galeotti announced in a news release. "North Korea is not just a threat to the homeland from afar," Pirro said. "It is perpetrating fraud on American citizens, American companies and American banks." She said it's important for U.S. corporations and businesses to verify the identities of remote workers to thwart such fraud. "If this happened to these big banks, to these Fortune 500, brand-name, quintessential American companies, it can or is happening to your company," Pirro added. In addition to the prison term, Moss also ordered Chapman to forfeit $284,555.92 that was intended for North Koreans and to pay a $176,850 fine. She also must serve three years of supervised release after completing her prison term. Chapman was part of what the Justice Department says is one of the largest North Korean IT worker fraud schemes. It involved the theft of identities from 68 U.S. citizens and residents and affected 309 U.S. businesses and two international businesses. Chapman is a U.S. citizen and participated in the scheme from October 2020 to October 2023 by using stolen and purchased identities of U.S. nationals to help North Korean operatives to obtain remote work as U.S. firms, including many Fortune 500 companies. The DOJ says Chapman operated a "laptop farm" at her home, where she received and operated at least 90 laptops to fool U.S. employers into thinking the North Korean operatives were located in the United States. She also shipped 49 laptops and other devices that U.S. employers provided and that she shipped overseas. Chapman sent several to a city in China that is located along the border with North Korea. The companies affected include a top-five television network, a Silicon Valley tech company, an aerospace manufacturer, a U.S. carmaker, a luxury retail store and a U.S. media and entertainment company. The North Korean operatives also tried to gain remote employment with two U.S. government agencies. Court documents indicate North Korea has deployed thousands of highly skilled IT workers around the world to use false, stolen or borrowed identities of people in the United States and elsewhere to obtain remote positions. The scheme relies on the assistance of U.S. citizens and legal residents when tried in the United States and enables North Korea to defraud respective employers of millions of dollars, the DOJ says. The illicit funds often are used to help fund North Korea's nuclear weapons program. The Department of State in July sanctioned North Korean hacker Song Kum Hyok for similar alleged criminal activities The DOJ in August also accused Matthew Isaac Knoot, 39, of Nashville, of allegedly operating a laptop farm to benefit North Korea's nuclear arms program.
Yahoo
5 hours ago
- Yahoo
PCAOB slams Hong Kong auditor of Luckin Coffee
This story was originally published on CFO Dive. To receive daily news and insights, subscribe to our free daily CFO Dive newsletter. Dive Brief: The Public Company Accounting Oversight Board sanctioned a Hong Kong accounting firm and its owner for disregarding rules and standards when auditing the books of Luckin Coffee and two other companies operating in China. Centurion ZD CPA & Co and its sole partner, Chan Kam Fuk, failed to properly perform risk assessments and obtain sufficient evidence when testing for several types of risks, including in the 2021 audit of Luckin Coffee, the PCAOB said Tuesday. In 2020, the Securities and Exchange Commission fined Luckin $180 million for fraudulently overstating its 2019 revenue, costs and expenses. The PCAOB permanently revoked Centurion's PCAOB registration, set a permanent bar against Chan and imposed a $75,000 penalty, the board said. Centurion and Chan neither admitted nor denied the findings, the PCAOB said. Dive Insight: Under Erica Williams — PCAOB chair from January 2022 until her resignation on Tuesday — the audit watchdog gained access to investigate China-based accounting firms for the first time and bring enforcement actions against violators. The PCAOB in recent years held China-based firms accountable for falsifying audit reports, failing to maintain independence, improperly depicting the work of another accounting firm as their own and sharing test answers during mandatory internal training courses. 'The PCAOB is committed to using the tools the U.S. Congress entrusted to it, and the access that the PCAOB spent years negotiating, to hold accountable auditors in China that audit Chinese companies,' Williams said in a statement Tuesday before leaving the board at the request of SEC Chair Paul Atkins. Luckin hired Centurion as its auditor soon after settling the SEC's fraud charges. Yet in the audit for the following year, Centurion and Chan failed to use information about the company's bogus accounting when assessing risks of misstatement or to design audit procedures aimed at averting fraud, the PCAOB said. Centurion also violated auditing standards in the audits of two public companies operating in China, Greenpro Capital and Moxian, including by failing to make required communications with the companies' audit committees, the PCAOB said. Moreover, the PCAOB's investigation of Centurion revealed that its quality control system did not provide sufficient assurance that the firm assigned work to staff with technical skills aligned with PCAOB standards, and ensure staff involved in the audit showed a level of skepticism required by PCAOB rules, the board said. The SEC appointed George Botic to serve as acting PCAOB chair, effective Wednesday. Botic, a certified public accountant, joined the audit watchdog shortly after it was formed in 2002, taking the position as manager of inspections in the division of registration and inspections in August 2003, according to his LinkedIn profile. Botic became a PCAOB board member in 2023 after serving as director of the division of registration and inspections. In that role he oversaw the registration and inspection of all domestic and foreign accounting firms registered with the PCAOB as well as all broker-dealer audits. Botic also served as the PCAOB director of the office of international affairs and special advisor to former Chair James R. Doty, and deputy director of the registration and inspections division. Earlier in his career, Botic was employed by PwC as a senior manager. Recommended Reading SEC approves new PCAOB audit confirmation standards targeting fraud Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
