Christopher Keays, a native of Scotland, was 27 years old and fresh out of the maritime academy in the summer of 2013 when he got “the chance of a lifetime” to work on a ship as a junior engineer with the Caribbean Princess. Today he is a millionaire.

A federal judge in Miami awarded Keays $1 million Wednesday for blowing the whistle on the Princess Cruise Lines' illegal dumping of oily waste into the ocean.

As part of a plea agreement, U.S. District Judge Patricia Seitz also ordered the company to pay a $40 million penalty—the largest ever levied for crimes involving deliberate vessel pollution, according to the Department of Justice.