DSD Shipping Slapped with Another Magic Hose Indictment

Norwegian shipping company Det Stavangerske Dampskibsselskab AS (DSD Shipping) is facing further charges in the USA after a federal grand jury in Lafayette, Louisiana returned a three-count indictment charging the company and four of its employees with violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) and the obstruction of justice.

DSD Shipping operates the oil tanker M/T Stavanger Blossom, a vessel engaged in the international transportation of crude oil. The employees indicted are four engineering officers who worked aboard the Stavanger Blossom: Daniel Paul Dancu, 51, of Romania; Bo Gao, 49, of China; Xiaobing Chen, 34, of China; and Xin Zhong, 28, of China.

According to the indictment, in 2014, DSD Shipping and its employees discharged oil-contaminated waste water generated aboard the Stavanger Blossom directly into the sea. To hide the illegal discharges, DSD Shipping and its employees maintained a fictitious oil record book that failed to record the disposal, transfer, or overboard discharge of oil from the vessel. The indictment further alleges that prior to an inspection by the US Coast Guard, Chen ordered crew members to remove piping connected to the vessel’s overboard discharge valve, install new piping, and repaint the piping to hinder an inspection by the US Coast Guard.

DSD Shipping and the engineering officers were charged with violating the APPS for failing to record overboard discharges in the vessel’s oil record book and with obstruction of justice for presenting false documents and deceiving the Coast Guard during an inspection in the Port of Lake Charles.

If convicted, DSD Shipping could be fined up to USD 500,000 per count, in addition to other possible penalties. Dancu, Gao, Chen and Zhong face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for the obstruction of justice charges.

This is the second indictment arising from a joint, multi-district investigation by the US Coast Guard, Sector Mobile, US Coast Guard Investigative Services and the Criminal Investigation Division for the Environmental Protection Agency.

Back in May, DSD Shipping, Dancu, Gao, Chen and Zhong were indicted in the Southern District of Alabama with a seven-count indictment charging related conduct.

On May 13, 2015, DSD Shipping AS officials entered a plea of not guilty to all criminal charges filed by United States Department of Justice in Mobile, Alabama.

”We are disappointed by the course of action taken by the Department of Justice. We believe the allegations are unfounded and we believe that a jury will agree once the facts are presented. We have offered our complete cooperation since the onset of the investigation and have made our vessel’s staff (11 personnel) in Mobile Alabama, and the company’s senior management available to the prosecution since Nov 2014,” an official statement by DSD Shipping said.