Two Sentenced to Prison for Environmental Crimes

The U.S. Department of Justice reports in its press release (quotation, not an independent finding): “WASHINGTON— A federal judge has sentenced two operators of asbestos abatement companies to prison for environmental crimes related to the illegal removal and disposal of asbestos in upstate New York, the Justice Department announced. John Wood of Plattsburgh, N.Y., and Curtis Collins, of Willsboro, N.Y., were sentenced on Feb. 6, 2009, to four years and two years in prison, respectively, by U.S. District Judge David N. Hurd for the Northern District of New York. Wood was further sentenced to pay restitution $854,166.06 to victims and was placed on supervised release for three years following the completion of his prison term. Collins was ordered to pay $114, 902.89 in restitution to victims and ordered to serve three years of supervised release. Both defendants pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act and the mail fraud statute. Wood further pleaded guilty to contempt of court based on numerous new asbestos crimes that he committed while awaiting trial on the original charges. In 2005, after being released from prison for unrelated felonies, John Wood began operating an asbestos abatement company known as J & W Construction, Inc. Wood thereafter directed his employees to perform “rip and run” asbestos removals that, rather than removing all asbestos, dispersed and left substantial quantities behind, significantly contaminating numerous businesses and homes. Some of the asbestos was buried on a farm in Willsboro that required the expenditure of funds from EPA’s Superfund to clean up the contamination. To deceive clients into believing that all of the asbesto”