Spanish Chief Engineer Indicted For False Statement and Failure to Maintain ORB

On September 18, 2008, the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts indicted Spanish seafarer Carmelo Oria on charges of covering up discharges of oil contaminated waste from the Cyprus-flagged product tanker Nautilus. Oria was charged with one count of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and one count of making false statements to U.S. Coast Guard authorities regarding the illegal discharge of wastes. Following up on suspicions identified by the Coast Guard in St. Croix, Coast Guard inspectors in Boston carried out an investigation in late March 2008, and found that neither the incinerator nor the OWS would operate reliably. During the investigation, the Coast Guard asked Oria to give a written statement that he had never ordered the pumping overboard of sludge or oily waters. The Coast Guard subsequently concluded that the oil record book and the written statement were false. The ship NAUTILUS is owned by Iceport Shipping, and operated by Consultores de Navegacion S.A. Just over a week ago, the government obtained a guilty plea from another engineer from the NAUTILUS, Chief Engineer Tumakov, for illegal discharges and maintaining a false oil record book in an earlier incident (see the entry of Sep. 12, below). Neither Iceport nor Consultores de Navegacion have been charged in connection with the incidents, yet. If convicted on the APPS charge, Oria faces up to 6 years imprisonment, 3 years supervised release, and a $250,000 fine. If convicted on the false statements charge, he could face an additional 5 years imprisonment, 3 years supervised release, and $250,000 fine.