BOSTON (AP) – Oil tanker and bulk shipping company Overseas Shipholding Group Inc. will pay a record fine of $37 million after agreeing to plead guilty to illegally dumping waste oil falsifying pollution logs in six U.S. ports, federal officials said Tuesday.

The company agreed to plead guilty to 33 felony counts stemming from dumping violations from nine ships and for log violations for three other ships in Boston; Portland, Maine; Los Angeles; San Francisco; Wilmington, N.C.; and Beaumont, Texas, federal officials said.

The penalty includes a $27.8 million criminal fine that will be divided among the districts and a $9.2 million community service payment to fund various marine environmental projects.

The Department of Justice and the U.S. Coast Guard opened their investigation after a tip from Canadian officials, who reported one of the company’s ships showed oil waste was being disposed of but official records failed to account for it. An investigation showed 150,000 gallons of oil-contaminated waste was dumped in the waters between Maine and Massachusetts, officials said.

The Overseas Shipholding Group Inc., one of the largest publicly traded tanker firms in the world, “has engaged in repeated and deliberate pollution of our oceans,” said acting Associate U.S. Attorney General William Mercer stated in a release.

The company’s management failed to uncover or stop this illegal activity after allegations were brought to the attention of management several times and again after the government started its investigation, Mercer said.

“This penalty … will serve as a deterrent for all other companies who attempt to circumvent the law for their own financial gain at the expense of the environment,” he said.

Company officials did not immediately return a call for comment left at its New York City headquarters.

Under the terms of the guilty plea, the company agreed to a three-year probation during which it must implement and follow a stringent environmental control program that includes a court-appointed monitor and outside independent auditing of its ships trading worldwide.

The company also admitted in a court record that its “motive for the crimes was financial.” “OSG was saving the cost of offloading waste oil in port and the time it would take to comply with the law,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The $37 million fine is the largest-ever criminal penalty involving deliberate vessel pollution, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

AP-ES-12-19-06 1331EST