Carnival Corporation pled guilty to six charges of violating a 2016 probation agreement and agreed to pay a $20 million fine at its court appearance on Monday.
The Miami Herald reports that the company will also allow more stringent oversight during the remaining three years of its probation over violations including falsifying training records, communicating with the U.S. Coast Guard through a back channel, failing to give enough authority to the company’s environmental compliance officer, hastily cleaning up ships ahead of visits by a court monitor, continuing quick ship clean-ups ahead of auditor visits after the court had ordered the company to stop and dumping food waste mixed with plastic in Bahamian waters.
Sources had told Travel Agent that Carnival Corp. had reached an agreement with U.S. federal prosecutors over the case last week, three weeks after U.S. Federal Judge Patricia Seitz threatened to revoke the company’s probation over the 2016 criminal environmental pollution case, which involved the company’s Princess Cruises brand.
Following the 2016 case, all Carnival Corporation ships had been following a court-supervised, five-year environmental compliance program. The company had also paid a $40 million fine.
In April, Judge Seitz had also threatened to temporarily bar the company from docking its ships at U.S. ports due to allegations that it had violated its probation.
“We heard the concerns expressed by Judge Seitz and will do our utmost to ensure we meet all expectations under the ECP and continue to strive to be best in class on environmental compliance,” a spokesperson for the cruise line had said in a statement provided to Travel Agent back in April.
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