Two more employees of an embattled asbestos handling service plead guilty pleas to having conspired to violate federal laws and state regulations in illegally removing asbestos at a former IBM site in Kingston, New York.
Two more employees of an embattled asbestos handling service plead guilty pleas to having conspired to violate federal laws and state regulations in illegally removing asbestos at a former IBM site in Kingston, New York.
The U.S. Department of Justice on June 8 said Madeline Alonge, 27, and Kristopher Landell, 36, entered guilty pleas before Judge McAvoy in Binghamton, New York, admitting to permitting and directing the illegal means to eliminate asbestos from TechCity in Kingston.
The lawsuit involves a facility at the TechCity site that covered 400,000 square feet of regulated asbestos-containing materials (RACM) and 6,000 linear feet of RACM pipe wrap.
The guilty pleas are a recent development of the ongoing asbestos lawsuit involving asbestos abatement companies and property management over the asbestos removal project in TechCity between 2015 and 2016.
“The pleas entered today are especially important because they address not only criminal violations of the Clean Air Act but also the criminal circumvention of the third party project and air monitor systems designed to ensure compliance,”
Jean E. Williams, Acting Assistant Attorney General Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD), said in a statement.
Court records show that Alonge, just like Gunay Yakup who pleaded guilty earlier in June, was also a supervisor for the asbestos abatement company A2 Environmental Solutions.
The owner of the abatement company Stephanie Laskin also pleaded guilty to conspiracy pleas alongside Yakup.
Laskin, along with abatement supervisors Alonge and Yakup, reportedly directed the removal and disposal of asbestos to property not sealed off with critical barriers, which could have prevented asbestos emissions outside the work area.
In addition, the court noted that their co-conspirator Landell failed to do her responsibility as a project monitor and, instead, had conspired with A2 Environmental Solutions by permitting the illegal practices to continue, not conducting requisite air monitoring, falsifying compliance records, and not conducting “final air clearances.”
Landell holds a New York license responsible for ensuring compliance with federal and state asbestos regulations. She is also in authority for conducting air monitoring to ensure that asbestos fibers are not released into the environment,
“These criminal acts endanger workers and the community and cost the taxpayers substantial monies in cleanup costs,” Special Agent in Charge Tyler Amon of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Criminal Investigation Division added in the release.
Earlier this year, Roger Osterhoudt, vice president of property management for Tech City, also pleaded guilty to the same asbestos lawsuit.
Osterhoudt reportedly hired Laskin’s asbestos abatement contractor despite reported numerous violations and “illegal practices” and pressured asbestos abatement supervisors (Alonge and Yakup) and workers to expedite the removal of asbestos at TechCity to meet contract deadlines
