When the whistle blows, companies pay

摘要

In recent criminal maritime environ-mental prosecutions, crewmembers have received significant awards for reporting illegal discharges of oil to the government. Invoking the bounty provision in the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS), which allows courts to award up to one-half of the fine to those who provided information leading to the conviction, courts have awarded whistle-blowers millions of dollars at the request of the government. Although the statutory provision in APPS that authorizes whistleblower awards is not new, the recent increase in the frequency and the amount of such awards is unprecedented and intended to encourage crewmembers to report environmental violations. Over the past several years, the Department of Justice (DOJ), through its Vessel Initiative, has been vigorously prosecuting cases involving the deliberate bypass of a ship's oil-water separator (OWS). In 2004 alone, there have been seven OWS prosecutions, resulting in nine guilty pleas—four for companies and five for individuals. If history holds true, most, if not all, of those individuals that were convicted will be detained in the U.S. or will go to jail when sentenced. Prosecutions for OWS violations are also pending in at least seven states. In a recent press release, DOJ expressed its commitment to continue pursuing these cases, stating, "It has been the way of doing business for so long that it is going to take time to achieve our goals of deterrence. We are not done yet by any means".