New Haven Independent

The Greek shipping company Ionia Management S.A., whose vessel was detained in New Haven’s harbor in March, stands accused of violating deep-sea pollution laws and falsifying ship records to cover its tracks, according to an indictment
handed down earlier this month. US District Judge Janet Bond Arterton is presiding over the trial, which opened last Wednesday at the New Haven federal courthouse on Church Street.

In court Monday, government prosecutors rolled out the Dutch coast guard officer to testify that he had identified a tanker in the North Sea that was trailing an oil slick behind it.

But defense attorneys for Ionia rejected the testimony, arguing that the computer system used by Dutch shipping authorities to identify the M/T Kriton was unreliable. George Chalos, who represents Ionia, cited a study claiming that the tanker’s on-board identification system had an error rate exceeding 30 percent.

There was simply no way of knowing whether the tanker identified by the Dutch coastguard was, in fact, the M/T Kriton, Chalos argued.

The tanker in question came under scrutiny last March when a Filipino sailor alerted the US Coast Guard to alleged unlawful oil dumping while his tanker was docked in the New Haven Harbor. The whistle-blower, an electrician named Alexander Guevarra, along with seven other Filipino sailors, has been held in New Haven since March as they waited to testify against their employer in the trial. The first of the Filipino sailors testified last Thursday. Guevarra is slated to appear in court on Tuesday.

Under direct examination Monday, Arie Cromwijk (pictured in a sketch at the top of this story) testified that he had identified the M/T Kriton while manning a maritime control post in the Netherlands. An inspector from the Ministry who was conducting a fly-over mission in the North Sea allegedly spotted a tanker trailing a pool of shiny water—telltale sign of oil spillage—and ordered Cromwijk to identify the vessel.

“When I received the coordinates from van Kolk [the inspector] I entered them into the AIS system,” said Cromwijk, whose trip to the United States was funded by the District Attorney’s office. “I double-clicked on the area and the M/T Kriton popped up on my screen.”

Cromwijk explained that all ships exceeding a gross tonnage of 30,000 are required to have the Automated Identification System (AIS), a device that works like a radio transponder on an airplane. He added that an AIS screenshot of the M/T Kriton shown in court was, to the best of his knowledge, wholly accurate.

But George Chalos disagreed.

“Could you have made a mistake while making this reading,” he asked Cromwijk during cross-examination.

“No.”

Chalos persisted: “You don’t make mistakes?”

“Yes I do make mistakes,” answered Cromwijk. “But not in this case.”

The Transport Ministry inspector who spotted the M/T Kriton from an airplane is scheduled to appear in court Tuesday. Last week, the government questioned the US Coast Guard officers who had boarded the M/T Kriton in the New Haven Harbor last March.

If convicted on all charges, Ionia Management could face up to $9 million in environmental pollution fines—and possibly much more if prosecutors manage to convince the 16-member jury that Ionia’s misdeeds warrant a special sentencing enhancement. In recent years, penalties for deep-sea pollution violations have been increased to reflect a zero-tolerance attitude on the part of the US Coast Guard and the Environmental Protection Agency.

As recently as last March, the American shipping company OSG was sentenced to pay a total of $37 million in fines and community service payments. A Texas jury found the company guilty “deliberate vessel pollution” in violation of the Clean Water Act of 1990, according to court documents. In that case, the twelve crew-members who blew the whistle on their employer were each awarded $437,500, in accordance with a reward policy upheld by the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.

Ionia Management S.A., a Greek shipping company incorporated in Liberia, was convicted in 2002 in another deep-sea pollution trial. Ionia operates the M/T Kriton, but the tanker is owned by Kriton Management, a company based in Liberia. Click here to read an article in this week’s Economist about shipping practices in Liberia, a tiny West African nation that has the world’s second-largest fleet registered under its flag.