A Louisiana jury did not buy the motives of a crew member-turned-whistleblower, setting free the master of a Ridgebury Tankers ship who had been held in the US for 19 months, accused of dumping oily bilge water at sea.
Vjaceslavs Birzakovs, in charge of the 50,250-dwt Ridgebury Alexandra Z (built 2009), was taken into custody in September 2017 after a Filipino crew member provided evidence of the discharge to US Coast Guard inspectors in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
