Can an Indian man and a Singaporean company really face American justice?

Scant remnants of the Francis Scott Key Bridge provided a dramatic backdrop as federal prosecutors announced a development two years in the making: The operator of the ship that knocked down Baltimore’s bridge, killing six construction workers, faces criminal charges.

But securing an indictment is one thing. Handcuffing an employee half a world away and trying to extract potential financial penalties from a foreign corporation is another. And the government could face an uphill battle in exacting justice, some legal experts said.

Martin Davies, director of Tulane University’s Maritime Law Center, suggested the case’s purpose could be to issue a warning to the industry: Don’t bring shoddy ships into U.S. waters.

“I do think this is, to some extent, for display,” he said.

The Port of Baltimore whirred with industry as Maryland U.S. Attorney Kelly Hayes announced the charges Tuesday aboard the NS Savannah. Following the collapse, shipping commerce stalled for months, and commuters still spend millions more hours on the road annually. It will be years before the bridge is replaced, and the project is expected to cost at least $5 billion.

Grace Ocean Private Ltd., the Dali cargo ship’s owner, and Synergy Marine Group, its operator, have agreed to pay at least $2.35 billion to settle claims with Maryland and the federal government. Other claims, which experts believe will yield much smaller awards, are scheduled for federal civil trial next month.

Now Synergy and an employee face criminal charges. There is “more work to do,” Hayes said, and some legal experts cautioned the U.S. government has a difficult road ahead.

Still, Derek Cohen, a former deputy chief of the fraud section for the U.S. Department of Justice, said, “if prosecutors have a pattern, if they’re able to show that they did things improperly, certainly that’s a viable case to be able to move forward on.”

Federal prosecutors will try cases against Synergy — which has an arm headquartered in Singapore and one in India — as well as Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair, a technical superintendent. Nair, 47, is not a senior executive, but more of a middle manager, acting as a land-based liaison between the ship and the company. He is believed to be in India, Hayes said, noting the government would use all “available law enforcement tools” to bring him into custody.

But Nair could simply stay put.

Given the uncertainty of bringing Nair to the U.S., some maritime experts cautioned the indictment could be more symbolic than pragmatic.

“Unless they can get jurisdiction over the shoreside superintendent, which seems unlikely, the indictment seems to be more directed towards optics rather than a true prosecution,” said Charles Simmons Jr., who teaches maritime law at the University of Baltimore and University of Maryland law schools.

Beyond the charges facing him as an individual, Nair could be key to the case due to the principle of “vicarious criminal responsibility”: Any wrongdoing by him could be linked to Synergy.

“The DOJ doesn’t want the little guy,” said George Chalos, a maritime attorney based in New York. “They want the company, but have to go after the little guy to get to the big fish.”

Synergy has redirected blame toward Hyundai Heavy Industries, which built the ship, and toward Maryland for not better reinforcing its bridge. In the company’s first salvo following the indictment, Synergy spokesperson Darrell Wilson characterized the criminal allegations as “baseless.”

“We are confident that the DOJ cannot and will not meet its burden of proof and that we will prevail at trial,” he said in a statement.

When corporations face criminal charges, cases rarely go to trial, said Cohen, the former DOJ attorney. That was true of the infamous Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill in 2010, which Cohen worked on. In that case, BP avoided trial but paid billions in fines.

That disaster could be an analog for the Key Bridge case, including some familiar faces. The Louisiana-based Liskow & Lewis law firm worked on both cases, and Nair’s attorney, David Gerger, represented an exonerated BP engineer tried in connection with the Deepwater Horizon incident.

If the parties settle on a financial penalty in the Key Bridge criminal case, the government could face another climb: enforcement. A hefty fine — up to $10 billion, Hayes said — is possible, but there’s no easy way to collect from Synergy, since it is based overseas and may not have the resources to satisfy such a judgment.

One powerful lever the federal government could use is the threat of “arresting” or detaining one of Synergy’s many ships within U.S. ports.

“In order for any foreign ship to enter the United States, there are clearance procedures, and those processes can be made very difficult and eventually they could be barred,” said Michael Underhill, who worked for the Department of Justice for nearly 40 years and is a former merchant mariner who coordinated counsel for the Deepwater Horizon case.

Some observers expected one or more of the Dali’s crew members to be charged, but none were. Seven of the crew, including the captain, have been held in Baltimore for the past two years, glumly passing their days in extended-stay apartments.

They’ve been kept here pursuant to an opaque agreement between the federal government and Synergy. Asked Tuesday about the sailors’ future, Hayes declined to answer directly.

“We will continue to work with the appropriate authorities to determine their status going forward,” she said.

Josh Messick, director of the Baltimore International Seafarers’ Center in Locust Point, looks out for the crew members. As news of the charges came out, the seafarers felt hopeful they would return to their families soon, Messick said, though that’s far from certain.

“It’s just good for them to hear they’re not being vilified,” he said.