FBI agents board Baltimore ship linked to Singaporean company sued in bridge collapse

Caption

Tugboats maneuver the damaged container ship Dali through the Port of Baltimore and into the Seagirt Marine Terminal on May 20. / Getty Images

The FBI and other federal authorities have boarded a vessel in Baltimore managed by the same company as the cargo ship that caused the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge back in March.

Their visit comes just a few days after the Justice Department filed a lawsuit against the companies that owned and operated the deadly ship.

In a statement, the FBI said its agents along with officials from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division and the Coast Guard's Investigative Services arrived at the Maersk Saltoro vessel Saturday morning.

The FBI said the group was "conducting court authorized law enforcement activity" and declined to provide more details.

Records from IHS Shipping Data show the Maersk Saltoro is managed by Synergy Marine Private Ltd., the same company that operated the cargo ship, Dali.

On March 26, the massive vessel lost power and crashed into the Baltimore bridge, killing six construction workers who had been repairing potholes in the overnight hours on the structure.

On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced it was suing Synergy Marine and the ship's owner, Grace Ocean Private Ltd., — both of which are Singapore-based corporations — for negligence and dangerous cost-cutting decisions that led to the bridge collapse.

The catastrophe shut down the busy port for months and it also obliterated a segment of Interstate 695 carried by the bridge.

“The ship’s owner and manager … sent an ill-prepared crew on an abjectly unseaworthy vessel to navigate the United States’ waterways,” the Justice Department said in a civil claim filed in a federal court in Maryland.

The federal government is seeking more than $100 million in costs that the U.S. incurred in responding to the disaster. The federal claim does not cover the expenses of rebuilding the bridge. Since Maryland built and owned the bridge, the state will pursue its own compensation, according to the Justice Department.

The FBI has also opened a criminal investigation into the fatal collapse, with a focus on the massive ship and whether the crew knew that the vessel was malfunctioning before they left the port, the Washington Post reported in April.