Federal prosecutors charge ship operator, employee in Key Bridge collapse

More than two years after a container ship destroyed the Francis Scott Key Bridge, federal prosecutors brought criminal charges against the ship’s Singaporean operator and an employee, accusing them in an indictment unsealed Tuesday of conspiracy, obstruction and misconduct resulting in death.

The U.S. Department of Justice previously described the March 26, 2024, disaster as “entirely avoidable,” saying in a lawsuit filed later that year that the crew recklessly cut corners and ignored known electrical problems on the vessel that caused “catastrophic harm,” including the deaths of six highway workers.

The indictment, handed up April 8, alleges the company improperly used flushing pumps — which can cause blackouts — since 2020 and hid their use of the pumps and lied to investigators. Prosecutors said they “concealed material safety information from regulatory authorities ... to ensure that Synergy vessels could do business in U.S. ports and waters without delay, interference or detention” and “provided false documents and false statements” to investigators after the disaster.

The charges were set to be announced Tuesday morning at a press conference aboard the NS Savannah, a ship docked in Southeast Baltimore with a view of the bridge wreckage.

Synergy Marine Group, the operator of the cargo ship Dali, and Grace Ocean Private Ltd., the ship’s owner, previously settled civil claims with both the federal government and the state of Maryland. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

A civil trial with billions of dollars at stake is slated to begin June 1 in U.S. District court. The victims’ families, city government, Baltimore Gas and Electric and local business are among dozens of parties suing.

The Dali companies have asked the court to exonerate them from, or limit, their liability, saying they are not at fault. Now, Synergy faces criminal charges.

Karthik Nair, identified in court papers as a technical superintendent for the company, was also charged. He’s accused of removing references to a “flushing pump,” which the National Transportation Safety Board found caused blackouts on the ship.

Nair’s Texas-based attorneys could not immediately be reached for comment.

The bridge rebuild is at a crossroads. The state recently switched from its contractor — Kiewit — after the two parties could not agree on the project’s cost. Maryland expects the bridge to cost about $5 billion, while Kiewit proposed a price tag of billions more.

Instead, the state will seek a new builder for the span. It’s projected to open at the end of 2030, though finding a new company could extend its schedule.

U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar indicated last month the civil case was “full speed ahead,” but legal experts say criminal charges could change that. Every member of the ship crew as well as others invoked their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination during proceedings in the civil case.

Shipping is big business — a single vessel can generate hundreds of millions in annual revenue — but operates without much public attention. The collapse of the Key Bridge, which is still years away from being replaced, was one of the costliest maritime disasters ever and thrust the industry into the spotlight.

Criminal charges against corporations are rare but do occur.

In 2012, oil company BP agreed to plead guilty to felony manslaughter, environmental crimes and obstruction of Congress in connection with the Deepwater Horizon explosion that killed 11 people and caused the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. They paid $4 billion in fines.

Shortly after the Key Bridge collapse, the FBI boarded the Dali. Several members of the crew have been marooned in the Baltimore area since then due to an agreement between the federal government and the ship’s operator.

A series of problems caused the 984-foot container ship to lose power twice after leaving the Port of Baltimore. It slammed into a critical support pier of the Key Bridge, which collapsed within seconds.

Six men filling potholes on the span died. A seventh man was pulled from the water and survived.

In the civil claim the DOJ later settled, federal attorneys said the ship’s owner and manager “sent an ill-prepared crew on an abjectly unseaworthy vessel to navigate the United States’ waterways.”

“They did so to reap the benefit of conducting business in American ports. Yet they cut corners in ways that risked lives and infrastructure,” they wrote.

The National Transportation Safety Board, which focuses on preventing future tragedies, investigated the incident for more than 19 months. Its findings, published in November, identified faulty wiring as the cause of the blackout after the ship left port.

An “inappropriate” use of a pump connected to a generator caused a second blackout, the NTSB found.

In the months after the collapse, the Dali was repaired in China. By January 2025, the ship had returned to service.

Nair, the employee charged, did not want his deposition in the civil case to be made public because “if he is indicted, then publicity that he personally ‘took the Fifth’” would be prejudicial, his attorneys wrote in a motion originally made under seal.

He sat for an interview with the NTSB in May 2024 and denied being aware of the flushing pump.

“Is that something you think you should be made aware of?” an investigator asked Nair.

“Yes, sir, I should be made aware, but should have been informed,” he responded.