Advisory: Miami Heat owner Micky Arison ordered to appear in U.S. federal criminal court

United States District Court Judge Patricia Seitz has ordered top Carnival Corporation executives, including board chairman Micky Arison and CEO Arnold Donald, to appear in court on Monday, June 3rd at 2 pm EDT.

MIAMI, FL — United States District Court Judge Patricia Seitz has ordered top Carnival Corporation executives, including board chairman Micky Arison and CEO Arnold Donald, to appear in court on Monday, June 3rd at 2 pm EDT for a probation revocation hearing for continued criminal violations of the company. Victims of Carnival’s environmental crimes have filed an emergency motion to intervene in the proceeding.

WHAT: The U.S. Office of Probation filed a motion for probation violations after the Court Appointed Monitor (CAM) found that Carnival Corporation ships have continued to violate national environmental laws and contravene international pollution prevention treaties, failed to properly train staff to ensure regulatory compliance, attempted to cover up their violations through falsification of documents, and tried to use back channels to influence federal regulators. 
 
On Friday, May 31st 2019  Knoll Lowney, lawyer with the Smith and Lowney law firm, PLLC and Stephen S. Stallings of The Law Offices of Stephen S. Stallings, Esq. filed an emergency motion to intervene in the criminal proceedings on behalf of three victims of Carnival’s environmental crimes, under the Crime Victims’ Rights Act. The emergency motion is supported by the victims’ statements. Stand.earth, a non profit that has led efforts for Carnival’s accountability supports the victims’ proposed intervention because they have a right to be heard, as a means to add transparency to this process, and to ensure that there is adequate punishment for Carnival’s crimes.  
 
WHO: Knoll Lowney, legal counsel for victims; Fotini Tsavousis “Sam” Duncombe of Nassau, Bahamas — Carnival environmental crime victim; Kendra Ulrich, Senior Shipping Campaigner for Stand.earth & coordinator of the international Clean Up Carnival Coalition.

HEARING: Monday, June 3, 2019, 2:00 pm EDT; Wilkie D. Ferguson, Jr. United States Courthouse, 400 North Miami Avenue, Courtroom 12-4, Miami, Florida 33128

AVAILABLE FOR INTERVIEWS: Victim Fotini Tsavousis “Sam” Duncombe; Attorney Knoll Lowney; Senior Campaigner Kendra Ulrich – 1:00-1:30 pm EDT in front of the courthouse: Midblock on N Miami Ave, between NE 3rd Street, between NW 1st Ave and NE 5th Street    

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Media contacts: 

Kendra Ulrich, Senior Shipping Campaigner, kendra@stand.earth, 360-255-3555

Knoll Lowney, Legal Counsel for Victims: knoll@smithandlowney.com, 206-650-1044

Notes:

Stand.earth has been leading a campaign to call on Carnival Corporation to clean up its environmental practices — including ending its use of one of the dirtiest fossil fuels on earth, heavy fuel oil. In January 2019, a study Stand had commissioned from a Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health faculty member was released showing that air pollution on the decks of Carnival ships can be as bad or worse than some of the world’s most polluted cities.
 
Stand has also been actively engaged at the UN International Maritime Organization to push for an end to the use of heavy fuel oil in the sensitive Arctic ecosystem as well as ending the use of scrubbers – or exhaust gas cleaning systems (EGCS) – as an alternative compliance mechanism to cleaner fuel for air pollution control. Dozens of the violations found by the Court Appointed Monitor in this current case related to failures of the EGCS for a variety of reasons. 
 
In 2016, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted Carnival Corporation for illegally dumping oily waste into the ocean from its Princess Cruises ships for eight years and covering it up. It was Carnival Corp.’s third conviction for the same crime since 1998. Carnival pleaded guilty to seven felony charges, was fined $40 million as part of its guilty plea and was put on probation with a Court Appointed Monitor. Over the last two years, while on probation, Carnival violated its probation by dumping plastic garbage into the ocean, illegally discharging gray water into Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska and sewage in the Bahamas, falsifying records, and seeking to avoid unfavorable findings by preparing ships in advance of court-ordered audits. Carnival even tried to lobby the U.S. Coast Guard through a back channel to change the terms of the settlement. Federal prosecutors announced last week that they had reached a deal with Carnival Corp. The judge agreed to review the deal, and took the unusual step of ordering Carnival’s CEO and chairman of the board to personally attend the hearing.

Documents:

Read Fotini Tsavousis “Sam” Duncombe’s statement here.

Read Eric Forrer’s statement here.

Read Knoll Lowney’s Declaration here.

Read Theodore Thoma’s statement here.

Read the Memorandum here.

Read the Motion here.

Read the proposed order here.