Dec. 23 (UPI) — Two Greek shipping companies are having to pay millions of dollars in fines after pleading guilty to concealing the illegal transport and discharge of oily bilge water near U.S. ports.

The pollution came from the tanker Kriti Ruby, U.S. Justice Department officials said in a release Monday, adding that the ship’s crew presented false records to U.S. Coast Guard officials at two ports of call — Jacksonville, Fla., and Newark, N.J.

Avin International Ltd. and Kriti Ruby Special Maritime Enterprises pleaded guilty to the 2002 incidents and were ordered to pay $3.3 million and a $1 million community service payment to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, Justice officials said.

The companies also were sentenced to five-year terms of probation, during which they will be subject to environmental compliance plans and inspections.

The companies pleaded guilty to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, or APPS.

Justice officials said the Kriti Ruby’s former chief engineer, Konstantinos Atsalis, was sentenced Monday to time served and a $5,000 fine after previously pleading guilty to charges related to the discharge of oily waste into the sea — and trying to conceal it by falsifying records — from the Kriti Ruby near a petroleum terminal in Sewaren, N.J. Additionally, second engineer Sonny Bosito also was sentenced to time served in relation to the incident.

According to court documents and statements made in court, the Kriti Ruby’s crew, on multiple occasions, “discharged oily waste into the sea via the ship’s sewage system, bypassing required pollution prevention equipment. They did not, as required, record these discharges in the vessel’s oil record book.”

Justice officials also said the crew tired to make it difficult for the USCG to discover the ruse by concealing most of the pumps and hoses used to conduct the bypass operations in a sealed void space called a “cofferdam.”

According to officials, Bosito admitted to causing a false oil record book to be presented to the USCG during its inspection of the Kriti Ruby and he admitted to “directing crew members to hide equipment used to conduct transfers from the bilge wells to the sewage tank before the USCG’s inspection.”

“Maritime pollution is extremely harmful to the environment, and so difficult to detect, especially when the polluters take elaborate steps to falsify records to conceal their crimes,” said U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger for the District of New Jersey. “Laws protecting our seas exist for a reason, and we will work together with our enforcement partners to ensure they are followed, and violators are punished.”

The USCG’s Investigative Service investigated the case.