A judge in Southern California, U.S.A. has sentenced the former chief engineer of the general cargo ship MV Donald to serve twelve months and a day in prison after he was convicted of conspiracy to obstruct justice and failure to maintain an accurate oil record book.
A jury found Chief Engineer Denys Korotkiy of Russia guilty of the charges in June.
Evidence presented in court showed that Korotkiy and others engaged in the illegal dumping of oily bilge water directly into the ocean through the vessel’s sewage holding tank, bypassing the required pollution prevention equipment.
Oily bilge water typically contains oil contamination from the vessel’s machinery operation and cleaning. The illicit discharges were not documented in the vessel’s Oil Record Book, as mandated by law. Additionally, Korotkiy was found to have made false entries in the Oil Record Book, falsely claiming transfers of oily bilge had occurred when, in reality, they had not. He was also found guilty of conspiring with others to impede the United States Coast Guard’s inspection and investigation into the mishandling of oily bilge water on board the MV Donald.
Interunity Management (Deutschland) GMBH, the MV Donald’s operating company, has also been sentenced for maintaining false and incomplete records related to the discharge of oily bilge water and was ordered to pay a total of $1.25 million, with a portion going towards marine and coastal natural resources in the Tijuana River National Estuarine Research Reserve.
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