Two high-ranking ship engineers were sentenced to prison Thursday after being convicted using a so-called “magic pipe” to illegally dump oil sludge and wastewater overboard from their ship and then attempting to cover it up, the U.S. Justice Department said Thursday.
Cassius Samson, 52, and Rustico Ignacio, 66, both of the Philippines, were sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Malcolm Howard for the Eastern District of North Carolina. Both will serve jail time for obstructing a U.S. Coast Guard inspection that took place in July 2015 aboard the cargo ship Ocean Hope at the Port of Wilmington, North Carolina.
Ignacio was the chief engineer and Samson the second engineer of the Ocean Hope. In September 2016, the two were convicted of conspiracy, violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, obstruction of justice and witness tampering, by a federal jury in Greenville, North Carolina. The evidence showed that Ignacio and Samson attempted to cover up the dumping of tons of oil sludge and machinery space bilge water into the ocean before the ship arrived in the United States. The defendant Samson also committed perjury at trial.
Samson was sentenced to a term of 12 months in prison followed by a year of supervised release and Ignacio to a term of nine months followed by a year of supervised release.
“These crewmembers egregiously violated U.S. and international pollution laws, obstructed justice and spoiled the marine waters upon which our planet and its marine life depend,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden of the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This case shows that polluting the ocean with oily waste and sludge will land you in jail, and that we will aggressively prosecute these serious crimes.”
Several lower-level engineering crewmembers testified at trial that Samson regularly ordered, with Ignacio’s knowledge and approval, the pumping of oily wastes into the ocean over a period of months. On at least two occasions, Samson ordered the connection of a bypass hose, or “magic pipe,” to pump tons of thick sludge directly overboard. Coast Guard inspectors and laboratory testing confirmed the presence of heavy oils in overboard discharge piping.
When the vessel arrived at the Port of Wilmington, the engineers ordered subordinates to lie to Coast Guard inspectors and to cover up evidence. Chief Engineer Ignacio presented inspectors with a doctored oil record book, in which false accountings of the ship’s production and disposal of oily wastes were recorded.
“The Coast Guard applauds the efforts of the Department of Justice and all parties involved in investigating this case,” said Coast Guard Rear Admiral Meredith Austin, commander, 5th Coast Guard District in Portsmouth, Virginia. “As an agency charged with the stewardship of the environment, we remain dedicated to detecting and preventing threats to the well-being of our nation’s waters and marine resources.”
Also convicted at trial were Oceanic Illsabe Limited, the owner of the Ocean Hope, and Oceanfleet Shipping Limited, its managing operator. Both shipping companies are based out of Greece. Sentencing of the corporate defendants is scheduled for early January 2017.
Copyright Ships & Ports Ltd. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit given to www.shipsandports.com.ng as the source.