Justice Department charges companies in Baltimore bridge collapse

BALTIMORE - Federal prosecutors announced criminal charges Tuesday against the companies that operated the cargo ship Dali that slammed into the Key Bridge in Baltimore more than two years ago, killing six workers and bringing one of the nation’s busiest ports to a halt.

In the indictment, prosecutors charged the ship’s operator, Synergy Marine, based in Singapore, and its manager, Synergy Maritime, based in India, with 18 counts, including obstruction, misconduct of officers resulting in death and conspiracy to defraud the government. Both companies are subsidiaries of Synergy Marine Group. An employee of Synergy, Radhakrishnan Karthik Nair, 47, who served as the “technical superintendent” aboard the ship, was also charged.

“The collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge was a preventable tragedy of enormous consequence,” acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement. “This indictment is a critical step toward holding accountable those whose reckless disregard for maritime safety regulations caused this disaster.”

In a statement, Darrell Wilson, a spokesperson for Synergy, called the charges baseless and said that Synergy would “vigorously defend itself against these inaccurate allegations.”

The destruction of the Key Bridge disrupted the Port of Baltimore for weeks, and the effects of the bridge’s absence persist, as trucks carrying cargo have to find different routes to and from the port. A replacement bridge, which is projected to cost as much as $5 billion, is expected to open in 2030.

The six men who died were working on an overnight road-paving crew and fell into the waters of the Patapsco River when the bridge collapsed about 1:30 a.m. March 26, 2024.

L. Chris Stewart, a lawyer who represents the families of four of the men who died in the collapse as well as a survivor who was pulled from the water, said “the families are happy, but it’s a cautious happiness.” They are among a number of claimants who are seeking to remove a cap on civil liability for the companies at a trial, which, for now, is scheduled to start in federal court next month.

The indictment described the sequence of events that led to the crash, beginning with two blackouts that affected the ship the afternoon before it left the dock. Shortly after departing the terminal and sailing into the main port channel, the 984-foot-long ship again lost power. But while power was restored after the first outage, the ship quickly lost power again.

Prosecutors said this was because of improper use of a flushing pump to supply fuel to two of the four generators aboard the ship. This kind of pump requires a manual restart, which the crew was not able to do quickly enough to regain control of the ship and avoid hitting the bridge.

The Dali was neither designed nor approved to use flushing pumps to fuel generators, the indictment read, though at least three Synergy-operated vessels had been using this system.

Prosecutors said employees of Synergy knew about the improper use of the pump but tried to hide it from authorities before and after the crash. They alleged that Synergy employees omitted mention in ship documents of using the pump in this way; provided “false, forged, and fictitious testing and inspection certificates” to inspectors; and “lied to investigators” about the use of the pump after the crash.

In November, the National Transportation Safety Board released a 259-page report on the incident, finding that the initial blackout aboard the Dali was caused by a loose wire, a conclusion echoed in the indictment. The NTSB described use of the flushing pump as “inappropriate” and said Synergy’s operational oversight was “inadequate,” but expanded responsibility for the crash and the ensuing deaths to state authorities who had not conducted a safety assessment of the Key Bridge itself and the lack of “effective and immediate communications” to notify the workers.

Wilson, the Synergy spokesperson, said this report “clearly refutes any allegations of wrongdoing” by the crew members of the Dali.

The indictment accused Nair of lying to investigators with the NTSB multiple times in an interview. At a news briefing Tuesday, Kelly O. Hayes, the U.S. attorney for Maryland, said Nair was believed to be in India, where he is a citizen, but that “we are going to enforce all of and use all of our available law enforcement tools” to bring him to the U.S. to face trial. David Gerger, a lawyer representing Nair, said his client “thinks about this accident every day, but he certainly did not cause it.”

The indictment also charges Synergy with violations of the Clean Water Act and other environmental laws for the pollution of the Patapsco River, from the debris that had fallen off the ship and from the wreckage of the bridge itself.

The U.S. Justice Department had previously filed a civil suit against Synergy Marine as well as the owner of the Dali, Grace Ocean, and announced a settlement in October 2024 for $102 million.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Maryland attorney general, Anthony G. Brown, announced that the state had reached a settlement last month with Synergy and Grace Ocean for $2.25 billion.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Copyright 2026 The New York Times Company

This story was originally published May 12, 2026 at 8:33 AM.