On January 10, 2008, Mark Humphries, the former chief engineer of the M/V Tanabata, was sentenced to six months in prison for conspiracy to make illegal discharges of oily waste and lying to the Coast Guard. The M/V Tanabata is an American-flagged car-carrier ship based in Baltimore. In addition to six months imprisonment, Humphries was sentenced to pay a
$1,000.00 fine and be subjected to two years supervised released.
Humphries had been convicted by a jury on October 16, 2007, for conspiring to violate four different laws including making illegal discharges of bilge waste, in violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships; failing to fully maintain an oil record book, in violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships; making and using materially false documents; and obstruction of agency proceedings. The jury also found him guilty on two counts of making materially false statements to the Coast Guard in 2002 and 2003.
At trial, the government proved that the M/V Tanabata had a removable bypass pipe (the