Delaware court orders $2 million fine against Navimax, which was caught on video dumping oil into Atlantic

A Greek-based company has been fined $2 million for dumping oil waste into the ocean last year.

Authorities found that the company had dumped the waste into international waters when a crew member tipped off U.S. Coast Guard officers during a routine inspection near Delaware City.

Navimax Corp., incorporated in the Marshall Islands with its main offices in Greece, was found in violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships by United States District Court Judge Maryellen Noreika.

The company also was found to be obstructing a Coast Guard investigation and is on probation for four years. The vessel's former chief officer, Roman Maksymov, also was sentenced for violating that federal law, according to a press release from the Department of Justice.

In early December 2017, the U.S. Coast Guard was conducting a routine inspection of Navimax's 750-foot-long oil tanker, the Nave Cielo, when a crew member gave officers a thumb drive with two videos showing a high-volume discharge of oil waste from a pipe about 15 feet above water level, according to the Department of Justice.

An investigation found that oil waste was dumped over a period of 10 minutes on Nov. 2, 2017, in international waters on a route from New Orleans to Belgium. The following day, crew members cleaned oil from the decks and the hull of the vessel. That discharge was not recorded.

“The defendant violated environmental laws that protect our marine environment from harmful pollution,” said David C. Weiss, U.S. attorney for the District of Delaware. "The message to the shipping industry is clear: Environmental crimes at sea will not be tolerated.”  

The Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships is part of the MARPOL Protocol, an international agreement that resulted from a series of tanker accidents in the 1970s.

It applies to the handling and disposal of oily waste from ship machinery or residue from cleaning oil cargo tanks.

Part of that act requires all ocean-traveling ships to maintain an oil record book to document all transfers and discharges of oily waste, regardless of the ship's location in international waters, according to the Department of Justice.

Contact reporter Maddy Lauria at (302) 345-0608, mlauria@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @MaddyinMilford.

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