DOJ sentences employees of Tennessee salvage firm to prison

U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer has sentenced five employees of A&E Salvage, Morristown, Tennessee, to prison terms ranging from six months to five year for conspiring to commit Clean Air Act offenses in connection with the illegal removal and disposal of asbestos-containing materials at the former Liberty Fibers Plant in Hamblen County, Tennessee.

In announcing the sentencing, the Department of Justice (DOJ) reports that A&E Salvage had purchased the plant out of bankruptcy in order to salvage metals which remained in the plant after it ceased operations.

U.S. District Judge Greer sentenced Mark Sawyer, a former manager of A&E Salvage, was sentenced to the statutory maximum of five years in prison, to be followed by two years of supervised release. A&E Salvage Manager Newell Lynn Smithwas sentenced to 37 months and two years of supervised release. A&E Salvage Manager Eric Gruenberg received a 28-month sentence. Armida and Milto DiSanti each received sentences of six months in prison, to be followed by six months of home confinement. The judge ordered all the defendants to pay restitution of more than $10.3 million, which will be returned to Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Superfund, which was used to clean up the plant site contamination.

In addition to prison sentences, the five defendants were ordered to pay restitution of more than $10.3 million, which will be returned to Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Superfund, which was used to clean up the plant site contamination.

In sentencing the men, Judge Greer heard expert testimony that noted the exposures of A&E Salvage’s workers to asbestos resulted in a substantial likelihood that workers would suffer death or serious bodily injury as a result of their exposure constituted a risk of death or serious bodily injury.

“These co-conspirators took unacceptable and illegal risks with workers’ lives and the community’s health,” says Assistant Attorney General John Cruden of the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “These significant sentences should send a message that illegal asbestos removal can have serious consequences, including a prison term for those responsible.”

According to court documents, all five defendants pleaded guilty to one criminal felony count for conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act’s “work practice standards,” which is salient to the proper stripping, bagging, removal and disposal of asbestos.

According to the charges, the conspirators engaged in a multi-year scheme in which substantial amounts of regulated asbestos-containing materials were removed from the Liberty Fibers plant without removing all asbestos prior to demolition and stripping, bagging, removing and disposing of such asbestos in illegal manners and without providing workers the necessary protective equipment.