On June 6, 2014, Pennsylvania
Attorney General Kathleen Kale filed criminal charges against a fracking waste
hauling company and its owner.
The company and its owner face
charges for violating Pennsylvania’s SolidWaste Management Act and Clean
Streams Law, overbilling customers, and participating in multiple criminal
conspiracies to commit insurance fraud.
According to a presentment by a
statewide grand jury, the company allowed oil, waste, and other pollutants to
run into storm drains. The presentment also stated that the company allowed
radioactive waste to leak onto the ground at its facility in Harrisburg,
Pennsylvania. The company is further accused of storing waste without proper
permits from Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection, and
illegally disposing of solid waste into the ground.
Moreover, the grand jury found
that the company overbilled every business it contracted with by inflating
their invoices.
The Office of the Attorney
General additionally filed insurance fraud charges against the owner. The Office discovered that several members of
the owner’s family were on the payrolls of the company and another entity which
was family owned. The grand jury stated
that these family members were ghost employees and that they conspired for
group health insurance rates.
Current and former employees apparently
testified that they risked termination if they did not follow the owner’s demands
to inflate invoices and add his family members to the payroll.
A
press release containing all the criminal charges can be found on the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office website.This post was written by Barclay Nicholson (barclay.nicholson@nortonrosefulbright.com or 713.651.3662) from Norton Rose Fulbright's Energy Practice Group.
