Greek Shipping Companies Accused of Faking Pollution Records

Greek ship owner Evridiki Navigation, manager Liquimar Tankers Management Services, and chief engineer Nikolaos Vastardis have been indicted for failing to keep accurate pollution control records, falsifying records, and obstruction of justice, the US Department of Justice (US DOJ) said.

As informed, the charges related to the falsification of records and other acts designed to conceal from the US Coast Guard (USCG) inspectors impermissible overboard discharges of oily bilge water from the Liberian-flagged oil tanker, M/T Evridiki.

According to the indictment, on or about March 11, 2019, Vastardis failed to maintain an accurate oil record book which fully recorded both the discharge overboard of bilge water that had accumulated in machinery spaces and any failure of the ship’s oil filtering equipment.

In addition, when the ship’s pollution control equipment was inspected by the USCG, Vastardis made false statements concerning how the equipment was operated at sea and demonstrated how the equipment was operated at sea in a manner designed to trick the equipment into reporting the discharge of oily bilge water at permissible levels, the US DOJ said.

The two companies and Vastardis are all charged with failing to maintain an accurate oil record book as required by the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, a US law which implements the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, commonly known as MARPOL.

The parties are also charged with falsification of records, obstruction of justice, and making false statements.

The 167,300 dwt Suezmax tanker Evridiki was built by Korean Hyundai Samho Heavy Industries in 2007, according to data provided by VesselsValue. It is part of the Blue Fin Tankers Pool.