NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — An oil tanker captain has pleaded guilty in an environmental crime case following the illegal dumping of oily waste into waters near New Orleans.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana reports that, beginning on Jan. 11, 2023, the crew of the PS Dream oil tanker was intentionally dumping oil and sludge from the ship’s residual oil tank at the order of captain Abdurrahman Korkmaz, 37, and documents were falsified to hide the crime.
The dumping of the oil was caught on video by a crewmate, who recorded a hose pumping sludge directly into the ocean and later presented the video to the coastguard.
Korkmaz is facing up to six years in prison and a $250,000 fine for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) on account of the waste dumping, and is facing up to five years in prison and another $250,000 fine for obstructing proceedings on account of the falsified documents.
His sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 10, and follows the sentencing of the other two companies involved, Prive Shipping LLC and Prive Shipping Denizcilik Ticaret, whose senior managers had been informed of the dumping by Korkmaz. His sentencing will be decided by a federal district court judge based on the U.S. sentencing guidelines as well as other statutory factors.
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