The Sun Ace Shipping Company, which owned and operated the bulk carrier Sun New involved in the pollution was banned from the United States for three years, fined 400,000 dollars and ordered to pay 100,000 dollars for community service in the case.

The Justice Department said that on January 3, 2006, US Coast Guard inspectors discovered the Sun New had been rigged with secret bypass hoses which allowed it to dump waste oil into the sea without being treated as required by law.

In December the vessel's chief engineer Chang-Sig O pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in the case, while the second engineer Mun Sig Wang pleaded guilty to keeping a false oil record book.

Chang-Sig O was given five months in jail, while Mun Sig Wang was sentenced to three years probation in the case.

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