German Ship Operator, Chief Engineer Plead Guilty in ‘Magic Pipe’ Pollution Cases

A German delivery firm and the chief engineer of a automobile service it operated have been charged with environmental crimes in two separate instances in Alaska and Oregon regarding the unlawful discharge of oil into U.S. waters by the use of a magic pipe.

U.S. Attorney for Karen L. Loeffler made the announcement late final week that AML Ship Management GMBH and Nicolas Sassin, Chief Engineer of the corporate’s Liberian-flagged MV City of Tokyo automobile service, had been each charged with violating the Clean Water Act for knowingly dumping oil into United States’ waters off the coast of Alaska in August 2014. Separately, each AML and Chief Engineer Nicolas Sassin have additionally been charged within the District of Oregon with violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) for knowingly creating and presenting false information to the U.S. Coast Guard when it arrived in port in Portland, Oregon in September 2014.

The Clean Water Act fees in Alaska and the APPS fees in Oregon are felony offenses.

The federal fees allege that on or about August 29, 2014, the chief engineer knowingly bypassed the vessel’s Oil Water Separator and discharged oily bilge water immediately into the ocean whereas touring by means of the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) off the coast Alaska throughout a voyage from South Korea to Canada and on to Tacoma, Washington and Portland, Oregon. Sassin and AML then didn’t document the discharges into the Oil Record Book and knowingly presenting the false and fictitious ORB to the U.S. Coast Guard upon inspection in Portland, Oregon on September 5, 2014.

Under the phrases of a plea settlement filed in federal courtroom, AML agreed to plead responsible to the Clean Water Act and APPS fees and pay complete fines of $800,000 and obtain three years probation. Chief Engineer Sassin additionally signed a plea settlement agreeing to plead responsible to the Alaska and Oregon fees, though the Justice division didn’t specify on the phrases of the settlement.

Specifically, AML admits that whereas the M/V City of Tokyo was roughly 165 nautical miles south of Sanak Island within the Aleutian Islands, the Chief Engineer used an unlawful pump system, or a so-called “magic pipe”, to knowingly discharge roughly 4,500 gallons of oily bilge water immediately overboard. The discharge created a sheen within the water off the strict of the vessel which was then witnessed by different crewmembers aboard the ship.

More studying on ‘Magic Pipe’ Cases.