PRINCESS CRUISE LINES TO PAY LARGEST-EVER CRIMINAL PENALTY FOR DELIBERATE VESSEL POLLUTION
January 23, 2017
On December 1, 2016 Princess Cruise Lines Ltd. (Princess) agreed to plead guilty to seven felony charges stemming from its deliberate pollution of the seas and intentional acts to cover it up. Princess will pay a $40 million penalty – the largest-ever criminal penalty involving deliberate vessel pollution – and plead guilty to charges related to illegal dumping of oil contaminated waste from the Caribbean Princess cruise ship which visited various U.S. ports in Florida, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Texas, U.S. Virgin Islands and Virginia.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s investigation was initiated after information was provided to the U.S. Coast Guard by the British Maritime and Coastguard Agency indicating that a newly hired engineer on the Caribbean Princess reported that a so-called “magic pipe” had been used on Aug. 23, 2013, to illegally discharge oily waste off the coast of England. It was determined that the Caribbean Princess had been making illegal discharges through bypass equipment since 2005, one year after the ship began operations. The discharge on Aug. 23, 2013, involved approximately 4,227 gallons, 23 miles off the coast of England within the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone. At the same time, engineers simultaneously ran clean seawater through the ships overboard equipment in order to create a false digital record for a legitimate discharge.
If approved by the court, $10 million of the $40 million criminal penalty will be devoted to community service projects to benefit the maritime environment; $3 million of the community service payments will go to environmental projects in South Florida; $1 million will be earmarked for projects to benefit the marine environment in United Kingdom waters.
If you have any questions, please contact Evelyn Sahr (esahr@eckertseamans.com; 202-659-6622) or Drew Derco (dderco@eckertseamans.com; 202-659-6665).
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