- A ship's engineer who dumped polluted water in the sea, then lied to Coast Guard, has been jailed.
- The Russian admitted making false statements and entries in the ship's oil log, per the DoJ.
A chief engineer who deliberately let about 10,000 gallons of oil-polluted water to leak from his cargo ship has been jailed after admitting he lied to the US Coast Guard and destroying documents to cover up the incident.
Kirill Kompaniets, the chief engineer of an unnamed bulk carrier, was sentenced to one year and one day in prison, and fined $5,000 for discharging oily waste and obstructing justice, according to a statement released by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) on Wednesday.
The incident occurred between March 13 and 14 last year when the engine room flooded during efforts to repair a problem with the discharge of clean ballast water, according to a DoJ release. The commercial vessel is registered in the Marshall Islands.
Kompaniets, a Russian national, and another unnamed engineer, then dumped the engine water overboard, without using a device intended to separate the oil, as required under pollution prevention rules, per the DoJ. They also failed to record the discharge in the Oil Record Book as required.
The incident, which happened while the ship was was anchored near the Southwest Passage off the Louisiana Coast, was first reported to Coast Guard by a crew member on social media, per the statement.
In a court filing cited by the DoJ, Kompaniets admitted to making false statements to the Coast Guard that concealed the cause of the incident.
The chief engineer also admitted to destroying printouts from the ship's computer alarm sought by the agency; entering a false record in the Oil Record Book; directing subordinates to make false statements, and to delete evidence from their mobile phones, per the DoJ.
In the factual statement filed alongside the guilty plea, Kompaniets admitted to preparing a document aimed at discrediting the whistle blower.
Alongside the prison sentence, handed out by Nannette Jolivette Brown, chief judge of the US District Court Eastern District of Louisiana, Kompaniets was ordered to serve six months of supervised release and a $200 special assessment, per the DoJ.
Kompaniets could not be contacted for comment.