Japan’s First Marine Service has plead guilty to US criminal charges of falsifying records.

Federal prosecutors in Oregon had charged the company with failure to maintain an accurate oil record book, a felony.

First Marine is associated with Daiichi Chuo Kisen Kaisha, a joint venture of Mitsui OSK Line and Sumitomo.

The charges before the US federal court for the District of Oregon concerned the then Burmese-flag, 24,000-dwt bulker Bright Nextage (built 1995, now Tinos).

The handysize bulker, which is now managed by Greece’s Lydia Mar Shipping, was docked on the Williamette River in Spring 2002 when a Washington state inspector discovered signs of illegal waste dumping, according to prosecutors.

The company will pay $500,000 of which $350,000 is a criminal fine and the rest goes to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to contribute to environmental restoration in the Columbia River estuary.

Bright Nextage was reported sold in February 2003 for some $8.5m to Germany’s August Bolten.

By Bob Rust in Osio