JOC Staff | Feb 27, 2013 1:46PM EST
Pacific International Lines has been sentenced in U.S. federal court under the terms of a plea agreement that requires the Singapore-based container shipping company to pay $2.2 million in criminal penalties, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Pacific International Lines previously pleaded guilty to three felony charges that it made false statements to the U.S. Coast Guard and violated the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships by concealing illegal waste water operations and discharges in a falsified oil record book, for required overboard discharges logging, and operating a vessel in U.S. waters without a functioning oil water separator, a required pollution control device.
The charges are a result of Pacific International Lines' illegal operation of the vessel Southern Lily 2 in June 2012.
“This case, being the third of its kind since 2011, should send a clear message to those shipping companies and mariners who willfully cut corners and violate the laws enacted to protect the oceans, as well as a much needed spotlight on this region of the South Pacific,” said Joshua J. Masterson, Special Agent-in-Charge of Coast Guard Investigative Service-Pacific Region, in a written statement.