OSG pollution fines total $37 million

 Overseas Shipholding Group (OSG) pleaded guilty and was sentenced Monday in federal court in Beaumont, Texas.   



   As part of the sentencing, OSG was ordered to pay an additional $3 million to satisfy the original criminal settlement with the United States, entered on June 20, 2007, that originally involved 33 felony counts, 12 oil tankers and ports located in Beaumont; Boston; Portland, Maine; San Francisco; and Wilmington, N.C.



   The Justice Department said the total $37 million penalty is the largest ever involving deliberate vessel pollution and was announced on Dec. 19, 2006 in Boston.



   The charges involved incidents on a dozen OSG oil tankers between June 2001 and March 2006. They included violations of the Clean Water Act, as amended by the Oil Pollution Act of 1990; the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships; conspiracy; false statements; and obstruction of justice.



   In pleading guilty, OSG admitted that it deliberately falsified the oil record book of various ships, a required log in which all overboard discharges are to be accurately recorded; made discharges at night; and concealed bypass methods used to circumvent required pollution prevention equipment during U.S. port calls so that the Coast Guard would not discover the criminal activity.



   For the part of the case in East Texas, OSG had been ordered last year to pay a total of $7 million ($5.3 million criminal fine and $1.7 million in community service) for making false statements to the Coast Guard. This week OSG was ordered to pay another $3 million in escrow for additional charges that will bring the total to $10 million in the Eastern District of Texas.



   In accordance with a plea agreement, OSG was sentenced after pleading guilty to three separate counts of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. The charges stemmed from the failure of the OSG oil tanker Pacific Ruby to maintain an accurate oil record book during port calls in Southeast Texas in December 2004 through March 2005. The company was ordered to pay an $800,000 fine on each of the three counts, and pay about $600,000 in community service payments.



   Prosecutors have previously credited OSG's self-disclosures, cooperation, and compliance measures taken by proposing fewer charges and reduced criminal fines. 

Source: American Shipper