Singapore Ship Company, Officers, Plead Guilty to Pollution Discharges
A Singapore-based ship management company pleaded guilty and was sentenced May 30 in federal court in Mobile for deliberately falsifying records to conceal pollution discharges from the ship directly into the sea. Target Ship Management, the operator of the M/V…
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Gaurav Prem, pleaded guilty to a violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships for failing to properly maintain an oil record book as required by federal and international law, as well as making material false statements during a U.S. Coast Guard inspection of the ship at the port of Mobile in September 2011. Payongyut Vongvichinakul, the ship’s chief engineer, and Pakpoom Hanprap, the ship’s second engineer, also pleaded guilty to violations of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, and are scheduled to be sentenced on July 19, 2012. The company is to pay a $1 million criminal fine along with a $200,000 community service payment to the National Fish & Wildlife Foundation. Target was also sentenced to three years probation. As a condition of the probation, ships operated or managed by Target that will or may call on the United States, must be subject to an environmental compliance plan supervised by outside auditors and the court. According to court filings, Target employees discharged oily bilge waste from the M/VGaurav Prem on multiple occasions as the vessel sailed from South Korea to Mobile. The discharges intentionally bypassed required pollution prevention equipment, they said. The ship’s captain, Prastana Taohim, was convicted at a jury trial May 17, 2012 (See ITT's Online Archives 12052126).