The company operating an international shipping company has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from an oily waste discharge into the sea.
MSC Shipmanagement Limited, one of the largest shipping companies in the world, pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to two counts of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS). The vessel’s owner, Hong Kong Spirit Shipping and Trading Limited, also pleaded guilty to two counts of violating APPS. Both companies were sentenced to pay a combined fine of $1.75 million and serve four years of probation. The charges arose when the motor vessel MSC Samira II, discharged oily bilge water into the sewage holding tank, and then into the sea using the sewage holding tank’s overboard discharge valve.
“Foreign vessels that enter the ports of the United States and present false documents undermine our efforts to preserve our environment and enforce the law,” Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Energy and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) said. “We will vigorously protect the integrity of our port state control system against actors who put profit over compliance with the law.”
Officials said between June and September 2024, senior officers in the engine department of the ship instructed lower-level crew members to pump the bilge water into the sewage holding tanks, and then overboard. Doing so allowed them to bypass the oil water separator, a piece of pollution prevention equipment designed to prevent oily bilge water discharge. Second Engineer Mikhail Tsurikov previously pleaded guilty to violating APPS and is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 10.
Officials said officers in charge of the operations failed to record the discharges in the ship’s oil record book. Additionally, on several occasions between September 2024 and January 2025, senior engine department crew members tricked the oil water separator by running fresh water instead of oily bilge water through the equipment’s oil content monitor, which allowed them to discharge the oily bilge water directly into the sea. Investigators said, these discharges were also not accurately recorded in the vessel’s oil record book.
“Deliberately concealing illegal discharges puts our marine environment at risk and undermines the domestic and international regulatory frameworks designed to keep our waterways safe,” U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Roberto Rivera, captain of the port and commander of Sector Delaware Bay, said. “The Coast Guard remains committed to working with our federal partners to hold operators accountable when they violate the laws that protect our oceans.”