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TANKER OWNER AND CAPTAIN PLEAD GUILTY TO OCEAN SPILL
Release Date: 10/05/99
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United States Communications, Education,
Environmental Protection And Media Relations
Agency (1703)
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FRIDAY, OCT. 1, 1999
TANKER OWNER AND CAPTAIN PLEAD GUILTY TO OCEAN SPILL
Anax International Agencies Inc., owner of the oil tanker “Command,” pleaded guilty on Sept. 27, to violating the Clean Water Act and agreed to pay a total of $9,413,213 in criminal and civil fines and damages in U.S. District Court in San Francisco for illegally discharging 3,000 gallons of bunker fuel oil into the Pacific Ocean on Sept. 27, 1998, and for failing to report the discharge. The spill caused more than $1.2 million in clean up costs and killed more than 170 sea birds along the San Francisco and San Mateo County coasts, including endangered brown pelicans. In addition, the captain, Dimitrios Georgantas, also pleaded guilty to violating the CWA and will be placed on three years probation, during which he may not work on ships that do business in U.S. ports. The chief engineer, Lampros Karaganis, was previously indicted for CWA violations and will be placed on pretrial diversion for 18 months, during which he may not work on ships that do business in U.S. ports. Under the plea agreement and a civil consent decree signed in conjunction with the plea, the Coast Guard will be reimbursed $1,231,737 for the costs of cleanup and investigation, $2,463,475 will go toward the national oil pollution cleanup fund as a criminal fine, more than $5.5 million will go to the state of California and the federal government to enhance and rehabilitate natural resources impacted by the oil spill, and $200,000 will go to the federal Endangered Species Reward Fund. This case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, the U.S. Coast Guard, the FBI, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the California Department of Fish and Game, and was prosecuted by the U.S. Department of Justice.
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