Organizations doing business in the United States are well aware that they can be investigated for violating U.S. laws and regulations, that they can be fined for illegal behavior and that their executives can be prosecuted. In recent times, however, a trend has emerged whereby prosecuting authorities are seeking and imposing unprecedented fines, which would have been unimaginable a mere decade ago. A second and even more unsettling trend is that prosecutors are seeking to preclude companies found to have committed criminal activity from doing business in or with the United States. Although "debarment" or "de-listing" has long existed, the perceived willingness of the United States to impose this type of sanction has picked up at an alarming pace.
In 2011, Stanships Inc. and three related companies involved in owning and operating a fleet of vessels pleaded guilty to various violations of U.S. law related to bypassing pollution control equipment. The defendants agreed to a $1 million penalty and a ban on doing business in the United States for five years. In an unprecedented move under maritime law, the controlling corporate officer of the various entities was also banned from owning or managing any ships that trade with the United States. This settlement is part of a series of cases over the past 10 years in which six foreign shipping companies were assessed fines of several million dollars per company and banned from doing business in the United States, sailing in U.S. waters and docking in U.S. ports.
