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A U.S. Caribbean ECA offense that noticed two corporations hit with fines of $3 million again in 2019 has now introduced a 3rd firm a felony nice of $250,000.
Ionian Management Inc., a New York-based firm that commercially manages three vessels— together with the vessel concerned in that incident, M/T Ocean Princess—was sentenced to pay the $250,000 nice on November 1. The firm plead responsible earlier than a U.S. District Court Judge in St. Croix to a violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships within the District of the Virgin Islands. Ionian Management was additionally positioned on probation for one 12 months.
Essentially, the offense concerned using fuel exceeding 0.10% by weight within the U.S. Caribbean Emissions Control Area (ECA). According to the U.S. Department of Justice “between January 3, 2017, and July 10, 2018, the M/T Ocean Princess entered and operated within the ECA using fuel that contained excessive sulfur on twenty-six separate occasions. The fuel was petroleum cargo that had been transferred to the fuel tanks as authorized by Ionian Management. Once authorized, the crew of the M/T Ocean Princess transferred the higher sulfur fuel from the cargo tanks into the bunker tanks and use it to fuel the vessel, even though it exceeded the 0.10% sulfur by weight maximum.”
The Department of Justice known as the sentencing of the vessel’s business supervisor, Ionian Management, “the final chapter in this multi-year investigation and prosecution of the companies and individuals involved in the use of non-compliant, high-sulfur fuel in the operation and management of the M/T Ocean Princess.”
