Former Chief Mate Sentenced to Prison in Oil Dumping Case

The former chief mate of the Panama-flagged reefer MV Murcia Carrier has been sentenced to a few months in jail for failing to take care of an correct oil file e book in violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS).

The sentence was handed right down to Valerii Georgiev, 42, a Russian citizen, by the Honorable Joseph Rodriguez, the Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Division for the District of New Jersey.

During his trial, it was discovered that on April 27, 2014, Georgiev ordered different crew members on board the Murcia Carrier to dump overboard a number of barrels containing some hydraulic oil. While Georgiev disputes the variety of barrels dumped into the ocean, the federal government believes that roughly 20 barrels of hydraulic oil have been dumped overboard.

The dumping occurred in worldwide waters off the coast of Florida whereas the vessel was in transit from Costa Rica to New Jersey, and the discharges have been then by no means recorded within the ship’s oil file e book. During the course of the Coast Guard boarding, Georgiev denied that dumping occurred and instructed crew members on board the vessel to disclaim that dumping had occurred.

APPS requires vessels to take care of a file often called an oil file e book through which all transfers and disposals of oil-contaminated waste, together with the discharge overboard of such waste, have to be absolutely and precisely recorded.

On June 17, 2015, Norbulk Shipping UK Ltd, an organization in Glasgow, United Kingdom and operator of the M/V Murcia Carrier pleaded responsible failing to take care of an correct oil file logbook and offering false statements with respect to the vessel’s rubbish file e book. The firm was sentenced to pay a nice of $750,000 and positioned on probation for 3 years.