In January, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the conviction of Ionia Management S.A. for the criminal acts of its nonmanagement employees. U.S. v. Ionia Mgmt. S.A., 555 F.3d 303 (2d Cir. 2009). What set this appeal apart was that Ionia, along with several amici curiae, including the Association of Corporate Counsel and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, argued that the court should revisit its long-standing rule that a company can be held criminally liable for any criminal acts of even its low-level employees. Although the court of appeals found that argument “unavailing,” this case has sparked a review of the appropriateness of respondent superior criminal liability.
Ionia operates and manages shipping vessels, including the oil-tanker M/T Kriton, which transported oil to the United States. Ships such as the Kriton produce a quantity of oil-contaminated bilge waste, which they are to store for proper disposal at their ports of entry or to process with pollution-prevention and -control devices. To ensure that ships entering U.S. ports comply with international protocols regulating the shipping industry, the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, 33 U.S.C. 1901, makes it a crime knowingly to violate the international protocols and requires that ships maintain oil record books, recording each ship’s treatment and disposal of oily mixtures generated from its machinery.
