Hyundai Heavy Industries Group, South Korea's top shipbuilding conglomerate, has been given a US$47 million fine by the U.S. authorities for selling engines that violated environmental rules in the country.

The U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Thursday (local time) that Hyundai Heavy Industries Co. and Hyundai Construction Equipment Americas, Inc. agreed to pay a $47 million civil penalty.

This photo provided by Hyundai Heavy Industries Group in 2017 shows its excavators on display at an exhibition in Las Vegas, the United States. (Yonhap)

From 2012 to 2015, Hyundai Heavy affiliates imported and sold heavy construction equipment with diesel engines that didn't meet emissions standards, the U.S. authorities said.

"Hyundai put profits above the public's health and the requirements of the law," Jeffrey Bossert Clark, Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in a release.

The EPA said it investigated Hyundai Heavy units after receiving a tip from a whistleblower in 2015. In the criminal proceedings, Hyundai Heavy was ordered to pay a $1.95 million fine by a U.S. court, the EPA added. (Yonhap)

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