Oil Tanker Owner, Operator, and Chief Engineer Convicted for Obstruction of Justice and Concealing Deliberate Pollution

Nikolaos Vastardis, Evridiki Navigation Inc., and Liquimar Tankers Management Services Inc., were convicted by a federal jury in Wilmington, Delaware, of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, falsifying ship’s documents, obstructing a U.S. Coast Guard inspection, and making false statements to U.S. Coast Guard inspectors. The crimes were committed in order to conceal Vastardis’ deliberate bypassing of required pollution prevention equipment in order to illegally discharge oil-contaminated bilge waste overboard from the foreign-flagged oil tanker Motor Tanker (M/T) Evridiki.