DOJ: Carnival Re-Polluted, Then Tried to 'Drown Its Deceit'

Cruise company ordered to pay $20M on top of previous $40M for pollution violations, cover-up
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 5, 2019 11:22 AM CDT
DOJ: Carnival Re-Polluted, Then Tried to 'Drown Its Deceit'
The Royal Princess is seen March 23, 2019, in Los Angeles.   (IEX Helicopters/Mark Gerasimenko/AP Images for Princess Cruises)

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice—still shame on you, and you're going to pay big for it. That's essentially the Justice Department's message to Carnival Corporation, which just got busted, again, for its ships polluting the waters they sail in, and for trying to cover it all up, the New York Times reports. The company's Princess Cruises had already been convicted and sentenced in April 2017 on felony charges related to one of its ships dumping oil-contaminated waste, and staff then trying to conceal those actions, per a DOJ statement. For those infractions, Princess had to pony up $40 million and was placed on "environmental probation." Now an additional $20 million penalty against Carnival and Princess has been tacked on, with six probation violations noted, including dumping plastic into Bahamian waters from the Carnival Elation.

Other violations cited in the court filing Monday include falsifying environmental training records on two cruise ships, as well as interfering with court-supervised inspections. "A corporation is responsible to its shareholders and board of directors to be profitable, but not by breaking the law and destroying the very environment in which it navigates for profit," says US Attorney Ariana Fajardo Orshan for the Southern District of Florida. "Carnival's failure to comply with the terms of its probation and later, its attempt to drown its deceit goes against the fiber of corporate compliance." Per the Miami Herald, via the Times, Carnival's CEO, Arnold Donald, said at a Monday hearing, "I do take responsibility for the problems we have. I am extremely disappointed that we've had them." He pledged that the company is "fully committed" to resolving these issues. (More Carnival Cruise Lines stories.)

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