Two shipping companies pleaded guilty Friday to federal environmental crimes after crew members aboard the MSC Samira III illegally discharged oily waste into the sea and failed to accurately record the pollution, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
MSC Shipmanagement Limited, described by the Justice Department as one of the world’s largest shipping companies, pleaded guilty in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania to two counts of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.
The vessel’s owner, Hong Kong Spirit Shipping and Trading Limited, also pleaded guilty to two counts under the same law.
The companies were sentenced to pay a combined $1.75 million fine and serve four years of probation.
Second Engineer Mikhail Tsurikov previously pleaded guilty to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 10.
According to federal prosecutors, the violations occurred aboard the MSC Samira III between June 2024 and January 2025.
Between June and September 2024, senior officers in the ship’s engine department instructed lower-ranking crew members to move oily bilge water from the vessel’s bilge holding tank into the sewage holding tank using portable pumps and hoses.
Crew members then discharged the oily bilge water into the sea through the sewage system’s overboard discharge valve, prosecutors said.
The process bypassed the vessel’s oil water separator, pollution-control equipment intended to prevent the discharge of bilge water containing more than 15 parts per million of oil.
Federal and international regulations require such discharges to be documented in a vessel’s oil record book, but prosecutors said the operations were not recorded.
The Justice Department said crew members later used another method to circumvent the vessel’s pollution-control system.
Between September 2024 and January 2025, senior engine department crew members allegedly ran fresh water through the oil content monitor while oily bilge water was being discharged through the oil water separator.
That allowed the crew to make the equipment appear to be processing compliant water while oily waste was discharged into the sea, according to prosecutors.
Those discharges also were not accurately documented in the ship’s oil record book.
In January 2025, the MSC Samira III made two stops at the Port of Philadelphia. During those visits, crew members presented the inaccurate oil record book to the U.S. Coast Guard, according to the Justice Department.
“These companies repeatedly cut corners and covered it up, befouling the marine environment,” U.S. Attorney David Metcalf for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania said in the Justice Department release.
Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Energy and Natural Resources Division said vessels entering U.S. ports that present false documents undermine environmental enforcement and the country’s port inspection system.
The case was investigated by U.S. Coast Guard Sector Delaware Bay and the Coast Guard Investigative Service.
Trial Attorney Lauren Steele of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Angella Middleton and Anthony Scicchitano prosecuted the case.
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