NEW BEDFORD — Carlos Rafael and his daughter will pay a $500,000 fine for the dumping of oily bilge and fuel filters from one of his fishing vessels, the Vila Nova do Corvo II.

The vessel captain, Carlos Pereira, will pay $11,000.

The proposed settlement for violations of the Clean Water Act and Coast Guard regulations was filed in federal court on Friday. The consent decree is subject to a 30-day public comment period and court approval.

Rafael went to federal prison in 2017 for falsifying fishing quota, smuggling cash, and tax evasion. He gave himself the nickname “the Codfather,” likening himself to a Mafia leader.

A judge ordered Rafael to forfeit four fishing vessels in that case, but the government retained only two, the Lady Patricia and the Olivia & Rafaela, according to court documents obtained by The Standard-Times.

Friday’s proposed settlement in the pollution case includes a combined fine of half a million dollars for Rafael and his daughter, Stephanie Rafael DeMello, plus $11,000 for Pereira.

Rafael and DeMello are the corporate managers of the Vila Nova do Corvo II, which Rafael owns, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

The U.S. government filed a Clean Water Act complaint against the company in April.

The complaint alleges the defendants discharged the contents of the engine-room bilge, which contains a mixture of fuel, lubricating oils, water, and other wastes, into the ocean rather than retain the waste onboard. They also disposed of used oil filters at sea, according to the government.

The vessel was harvesting scallops at sea off southeastern New England at the time of the alleged activity.

In addition to the Clean Water Act issues, the complaint claimed violations of Coast Guard pollution-control regulations related to bilge capacity and maintaining piping to transfer bilge to a shore-side facility.

The Coast Guard said it discovered the violations during boarding operations.

In addition to payment of the civil penalties, the consent decree requires improvements to the operation of the vessel. The defendants are required to repair the vessel to reduce the generation of oily bilge water and operate within the bilge capacity of the vessel.

They must also provide crew and management with training on the proper handling of oily wastes, and document transfers of oily waste.

“The results announced today are a prime example of the importance of the Coast Guard's prevention and marine environmental response missions,” said Captain Chris J. Glander, commander of Coast Guard Sector Southeastern New England in Woods Hole.

“We are extremely proud of the teamwork displayed by our boarding teams and marine safety professionals that were an integral part of responding and investigating these occurrences,” he said.

The money from the penalty will go into the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, which pays for federal response activities and compensation for damages from the discharge of oil or hazardous substances.

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