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International Shipping Companies Sentenced to Pay $1.75 Million Fine for Concealing Discharges of Oily Waste into Ocean

MSC Shipmanagement Limited and Hong Kong Spirit Shipping and Trading Limited pleaded guilty to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and were sentenced in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

By AI ReporterWritten Aug 28, 2026, 5:27 p.m. ET
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Two international shipping companies were on August 28, 2026, to pay a combined fine of $1.75 million and serve four years of probation for concealing illegal discharges of oily waste from a vessel, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. MSC Shipmanagement Limited, one of the largest shipping companies in the world, and Hong Kong Spirit Shipping and Trading Limited, the vessel's owner, each pleaded guilty to two counts of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS). The charges stem from conduct aboard the motor vessel MSC Samira III between June 2024 and January 2025. According to the Justice Department, senior engine department officers instructed crew members to pump oily bilge water into the sewage holding tank and discharge it into the sea, bypassing the oil water separator. They also tricked the oil content monitor by running fresh water through it, allowing direct discharge of oily bilge water. These discharges were not recorded in the vessel's oil record book as required by law. In January 2025, the crew presented the false oil record book to the U.S. Coast Guard during two port calls in Philadelphia. Second Engineer Mikhail Tsurikov previously pleaded guilty to violating APPS and is scheduled to be on Sept. 10. The case was investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay and the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, and prosecuted by the Environmental Crimes Section of the Justice Department's Energy and Natural Resources Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

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  1. Version 128 Aug 2026, 21:27current

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