Chandris (Hellas) Inc. pleaded guilty at Corups Christi federal court to violations pertaining to the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. The ship management company based in Greece now has to pay $1 million in penalties for concealing the dumping of pollution into waters off the Texas Gulf Coast. Court records show that the chief engineer of the M/V Sestrea —an 81,502 ton cargo ship Chandris operated — failed to document the ship’s dumping of oily waste directly onto the sea instead of disposing this through a separator aboard the vessel or burning it into the ship’s incinerator as it had been obliged to do.

The ship had stopped at multiple ports in Texas, including Corpus Christi in January. Apart from the fine, Chandris has also been sentenced to three years of probation.