Tanker Captain Gets Prison Sentence Over Environmental Crimes

The operators of a Panama-registered tanker have been fined $2 million and the ship's captain sentenced to eight months in prison over charges stemming from environmental violations in the United States, the Department of Justice announced. 

Dubai-based Prive Overseas Marine LLC and Turkey-based Prive Shipping Denizcilik Ticaret, the two corporations that operated the motor tanker P/S Dream, were sentenced in federal court in New Orleans to pay a $2 million criminal penalty and complete four years of probation. The companies pleaded guilty in May to charges of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS).

In addition, the court sentenced the P/S Dream’s captain, Turkish national Abdurrahman Korkmaz, on Sept. 10 to eight months in prison for an APPS offense and obstructing the U.S. Coast Guard’s investigation.

The charges pertain to the investigation of the P/S Dream vessel when it was heading to New Orleans in January 2023. Senior corporate managers were aware that Korkmaz had arranged to discharge oil-contaminated waste from a residual tank on deck into the ocean. The captain ordered the crew to pump the waste overboard and clean the tank with soap. The seamen rigged a portable pump to empty the contents overboard over three days. The defendants falsified the vessel’s oil record book by omitting the discharge.

One of the crew members alerted the Coast Guard and shared videos of the discharge and resulting oil sheen. When the ship arrived in Louisiana, another crew member came forward and gave the Coast Guard a recording of an officer discussing the discharge.

The falsified logs, presented to the Coast Guard during its inspection, were intended to conceal the fact that the crew had dumped oil-contaminated waste overboard in violation of MARPOL Annex I, an international treaty regulating oil pollution from ships. Corporate representatives at Prive Shipping were aware that the oil-contaminated waste remained in the tank and were informed by the ship’s master that it had been dumped overboard.

The $2 million criminal penalty includes $500,000 in organizational community service payments that will fund various maritime environmental projects in the Eastern District of Louisiana. Those projects will be managed by the congressionally established National Fish & Wildlife Foundation. As a condition of probation, the corporations must also adhere to an environmental compliance plan mandating audit, safety and inspection requirements over the next four years.