MSC Shipmanagement and HK Shipowner Plead Guilty in MARPOL Case
The U.S. Department of Justice reported that MSC Shipmanagement and a Hong Kong shipowner each pleaded guilty to two counts in a MARPOL case in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania Court and were fined a total of $1.75 million. The second engineer of the vessel involved in the case has also pleaded guilty and is scheduled for sentencing on September 10.
“These companies repeatedly cut corners and covered it up, befouling the marine environment,” said U.S. Attorney David Metcalf for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. “Their violations evidence both a disdain for our country’s laws and a clear case of greed. Shippers who illegally discharge pollutants and doctor their records will be prosecuted and held accountable.”
According to court documents, between June and September 2024, senior officers in the engine department of the MSC Samira III instructed lower-level crew members to pump oily bilge water from the vessel’s bilge holding tank to the sewage holding tank using portable pumps and hoses. The crew members then discharged the oily bilge water into the sea using the sewage holding tank’s overboard discharge valve. In doing so, they bypassed the oil water separator.
In addition to these discharges of oily waste from the vessel’s sewage holding tank, on several occasions between September 2024 and January 2025, senior engine department crew members also tricked the oil water separator by running fresh water instead of oily bilge water through the equipment’s oil content monitor. Doing so allowed them to discharge oily bilge water directly into the sea through the oil water separator.
The MSC Samira III made two separate calls in the Port of Philadelphia, at which time the U.S. Coast Guard says they presented false oil record books. By U.S. and international law, all oil discharges must be recorded in a record book, but U.S. Coast Guard inspectors found that the officers in charge of these operations failed to do so.
Built in 2009, the containership has been operating for MSC since 2021. It is 38,000 dwt with a capacity for 2,578 TEU. USCG records indicate that the vessel was detained for three days on January 9, 2025, after an inspection found oil accumulation in the engine room, issues with the emergency generator, and maintenance issues with the ship and its equipment. On its return call in Philadelphia on January 27, 2025, the oil discharge issues were discovered, and the vessel was detained for 13 days.
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The second engineer for the vessel at the time of the incident, Mikhail Tsurikov, previously pleaded guilty to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and is awaiting sentencing. In addition to the combined fine of $1.75 million, MSC Shipmanagement and Hong Kong Spirit Shipping and Trading were also sentenced to serve four years of probation.
Top photo by Peter Faas - courtsey of VesselFinder
