Arison and Donald Ordered to Appear in Court on Monday
United States District Court Judge Patricia Seitz has ordered top Carnival Corporation executives, including board chairman Micky Arison and CEO Arnold Donald, to appear in court on Monday, June 3 for a probation revocation hearing.
The U.S. Office of Probation filed a motion for probation violations after the Court Appointed Monitor found cases of Carnival Corporation ships continuing to violate environmental laws. Carnival Corporation is on probation as a result of Princess Cruise Lines pleading guilty in 2017 to seven felony counts arising out of vessel pollution from Caribbean Princess and efforts to conceal that pollution, one count of conspiracy, four counts of failure to maintain accurate records and two counts of obstruction of justice.
On May 31, Knoll Lowney, a lawyer with the Smith and Lowney law firm, and Stephen S. Stallings of The Law Offices of Stephen S. Stallings, Esq. filed an emergency motion to intervene in the criminal proceedings on behalf of three alleged victims of Carnival’s environmental crimes under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act.
Federal prosecutors announced last week that they had reached a deal with Carnival Corp, but Seitz agreed to review the deal and took the unusual step of ordering Carnival’s CEO and chairman of the board to personally attend the hearing.
Seitz published the previously confidential monitor's report in April. In the 205-page report, the monitor records hundreds of incidents from April 2017 to April 2018. The Miami Herald reviewed each incident and found that 24 were for illegally dumping sewage, food waste or oil; 19 were for illegally burning heavy fuel oil in protected areas; and more than 150 were the result of items like furniture accidentally going overboard. Carnival reported the violations to authorities directly or noted them in its internal records.
The non-profit Stand.earth has been leading a campaign calling on Carnival Corporation to clean up its environmental practices, and in January 2019, it released a study commissioned from a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health faculty member claiming that air pollution on the decks of some Carnival ships can be comparable to some of the world’s most polluted cities. Stand.earth has also been calling on the IMO to end to the use of heavy fuel oil in the Arctic and to end the use of scrubbers as an alternative compliance mechanism to meet air emission standards.
Documents provided by Stand.earth:
Read Fotini Tsavousis "Sam" Duncombe's statement here.
Read Eric Forrer's statement here.
Read Knoll Lowney's Declaration here.
Read Theodore Thoma's statement here.
Read the Memorandum here.
Read the Motion here.
Read the proposed order here.