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Feds charge shipping company in SF Bay oil spill
24 Jul 2008
Xinhua Newsfeed
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A Hong Kong-based company that operated the container

ship that struck a bridge support in the San Francisco Bay last year has been

indicted for allegedly doctoring paperwork in an attempt to thwart investigators

looking into the incident.

A federal grand jury charged Fleet Management Ltd. on Tuesday with six

felony counts of making false statements and obstructing justice. Prosecutors

announced the indictment Wednesday morning.

According to a Department of Justice summary of the indictment, unidentified

"senior ship officers and shore-based supervisory officials concealed and

covered up documents with an intent to impede, obstruct and influence the

investigation of the spill."

Among the allegedly falsified documents were the ship's passage plan for its

scheduled Nov. 7 journey from the Port of Oakland to South Korea, and two prior

trips made after the company took over the operation of the ship a few days

before the incident.

Under U.S. law, passage plans are required for each voyage. Fleet Management

"falsified and forged these plans after the crash and concealed and covered up

the real ship records," prosecutors said.

The indictment also charges Fleet Management with two counts of misdemeanor

crimes under the Clean Water Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act for

negligently causing the spill that dumped 53,000 gallons of toxic bunker fuel

into the bay. The spill killed and injured thousands of birds and fouled beaches

throughout Northern California.

The negligence allegedly stemmed from Fleet Management's failure to

adequately train a new crew it had installed after taking over operation of the

Cosco Busan, and for failing to post an adequate lookout.

Under the latest environmental-crimes indictment, Fleet Management is

charged as a co-defendant alongside Capt. John Cota, the ship pilot whose job

was to guide the giant container vessel from the port out to sea.

Cota has been charged with two felony counts of lying to Coast Guard

officials about his prescription drug use and two misdemeanor environmental

crimes.

Fleet Management could face fines of $500,000, or twice the losses caused by

the alleged violations, for each obstruction and false-statements count. The

penalties for the Clean Water Act violations could range as high as $200,000, or

twice the losses. The migratory bird count could bring fines as large as $10,000

or twice the losses.

Fleet Management is already being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for

breaking environmental laws. The lawsuit filed last year accused Fleet

Management and others of "fault, negligence and breach of federal safety and

operating regulations."

In a prepared statement, Fleet Management said Wednesday the company itself

had discovered "discrepancies exist between the facts as understood and reported

prior to its investigation." It did not elaborate.

But it said it had advised the Department of Justice of its finding. The

company said it had "suspended the individuals involved in the misunderstanding

of the facts pending completion of the company's internal investigation."

But it said it "does not believe that these new facts have any bearing on

the accident or on the pilot's navigation of the ship."

Fleet Management said it "will evaluate the government's allegations and

address them as appropriate in court." It said it would continue to cooperate

with ongoing investigations.

Regal Stone Ltd., the ship's owners, who hired Fleet Management, said it

"noted with disappointment" the new indictment.

The new charges of falsifying documents come as prosecutors were

investigating the possibility that the Chinese crew of the ship altered certain

unidentified records after the Cosco Busan accident. It was not immediately

clear whether the indictments and that thread of the probe are connected.

Josh Eaton, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello, said he

could not comment beyond saying that the indictment alleges Fleet Management as

a company altered records.

Jeff Bornstein, an attorney for Cota, said he reviewed evidence from

prosecutors that showed crew members had admitted in the last two months they

had not been adequately trained and had falsified "key navigational records."

The doctoring of certain documents, including passage plans, had been done "at

the direction of a very high-level Fleet official in the hours or days after the

accident," Bornstein said.

The new charges bolster Cota's contention that "this was a series of errors

that involved other people and other factors," Bornstein said in a telephone

interview.

Cota had boarded the Cosco Busan assuming, as all pilots must, that the crew

knew how to operate key equipment, his lawyer said.

A hearing was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon before a U.S. magistrate

judge on whether six Chinese crew members who have been held in Northern

California as "material witnesses" for eight months in the case against Cota

should be held at least until October to testify at Cota's scheduled trial.

Last week, Cota's lawyers said there was reason to believe certain crew

members had not told the truth, but requested that they be held as witnesses

until Cota's trial.

Capt. Aga Nagarajan, general manager of Fleet Management, defended his

company's actions when he was subpoenaed in April to testify before the National

Transportation Safety Board as it investigated the Cosco Busan incident.

"Everything points to some medical issues that are involved with the local

licensed pilot," said Nagarajan, referring to Cota.

In that testimony, Nagarajan denied the Cosco Busan crew was inadequately

trained. The crew had come aboard on Oct. 24, just days before the Nov. 7 crash,

but Nagarajan told the board: "They have long years of experience at sea, so

they come pretty much trained." Moreover, outside consultants and Fleet

Management teams had certified and drilled the crew, he testified.

Nagarajan was grilled by the NTSB about the vessel's passage plan at the

heart of the new indictment, though not about its veracity.



Copyright 2008 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be

published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.















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