United States v. MSC Shipmanagement Limited, et al.

On August 28, 2026, MSC Shipmanagement Limited (MSC) and Hong Kong Spirit Shipping and Trading Limited (Hong Kong Spirit) pleaded guilty and were sentenced. Both companies will pay a combined fine of $1.75 million and complete four-year terms of probation. They pleaded guilty to two counts of violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) for illegally discharging oily waste into the sea (33 U.S.C. § 1908(a)). 

MSC, one of the largest shipping companies in the world, operated a fleet of sea-going vessels, including the M/V MSC Samira III. Hong Kong Spirit was the vessel’s registered owner. Between June and September 2024, senior officers in the vessel’s engine department instructed lower-level crew members to pump oily bilge water from the vessel’s bilge holding tank to the sewage holding tank using portable pumps and hoses. The crew then discharged the oily bilge water into the sea using the sewage holding tank’s overboard discharge valve, bypassing the oil water separator (OWS). They also failed to record these discharges in the ship’s oil record book (ORB), as required. 

Additionally, several times between September 2024 and January 2025, senior engine department crew members also tricked the OWS by running fresh water instead of oily bilge water through the equipment’s oil content monitor. This allowed them to discharge oily bilge water directly into the sea through the OWS. These discharges also were not accurately recorded in the ORB.

Second Engineer Mikhail Tsurikov pleaded guilty to violating APPS and was sentenced to complete a three-year term of probation. 

The U.S. Coast Guard conducted the investigation.