FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ENRD

THURSDAY, JANUARY 5, 2006 (202) 514-2007

WWW.USDOJ.GOV TDD (202) 514-1888

Chief Engineer Sentenced for

Concealing Vessel Pollution
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Noel Abrogar, Chief Engineer of the M/V Magellan
Phoenix, was sentenced to imprisonment for one year and one day, and three years
of probation for falsifying records that attempted to conceal repeated overboard
discharges of oil waste from the ship, the Justice Department announced today.
Abrogar pleaded guilty on September 7, 2005 to violating the Act to Prevent
Pollution from Ships, based on his role in discharging oil sludge and oil-
contaminated bilge waste directly into the ocean from the M/V Magellan Phoenix
and then falsifying the ship’s records to cover up the discharges between December
2004 and March 2005. “We are committed to protecting our oceans by vigorously
prosecuting pollution from ships,” said David M. Uhlmann, Chief of the
Environmental Crimes Section for the Justice Department’s Environment and
Natural Resources Division. “Deliberate vessel pollution and obstruction of justice
are serious crimes, and today’s sentence demonstrates that defendants who violate
anti-pollution laws will be prosecuted and will serve time in prison.” The
government’s investigation began on March 25, 2005 after the United States Coast
Guard discovered evidence of the discharges and false records during an inspection
of the M/V Magellan Phoenix in Gloucester, New Jersey. In the course of their
inspection, Coast Guard inspectors learned that the M/V Magellan Phoenix had
routinely discharged oil sludge and oil-contaminated bilge water directly overboard
into the ocean without using the ship’s oil water separator, and without recording
these discharges as required in the ship’s oil record book.

Engine room operations on board large oceangoing vessels such as the M/V
Magellan Phoenix generate large amounts of waste oil. International and U.S. law
prohibit the discharge of waste oil without treatment by an oil water separator—a
required pollution prevention device. Law also requires all overboard discharges be
recorded in an oil record book, a required log which is regularly inspected by the
Coast Guard.

This case was investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard Criminal Investigative Service
and the Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigations Division, and
prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey and the
Department of Justice Environmental Crimes Section. The case was initiated by the
Marine Inspectors and Marine Investigators from Coast Guard Sector in
Philadelphia.

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