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PA PROBATION AND FINES FOR FALSIFYING LABORATORY REPORTS

Release Date: 08/23/96
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PA PROBATION AND FINES FOR FALSIFYING LABORATORY REPORTS

FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 1996

NORTH CAROLINA MAN AND COMPANY SENTENCED TO PROBATION AND FINES FOR FALSIFYING LABORATORY REPORTS



On Aug. 16, James C. Taylor and Aquachem Environmental Laboratories, a corporation owned by Taylor, were sentenced to probation and fined by the Federal District Court in Charlotte, N.C., on 15 counts of mail fraud and four counts of making false statements in connection with the falsification of laboratory reports required under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The sentence follows a Jan. 4 plea agreement in which Taylor and Aquachem admitted to purposely understating the amounts of various pollutants in the analysis they performed on samples of water discharged by various companies operating in and around the Charlotte area. The companies relied on the results of these analyses to prove that the water they discharged was within the limits established by discharge permits required under the CWA. Taylor was sentenced to two years probation and was ordered to pay a fine of $30,000. Aquachem was sentenced to one year probation and was required to pay a fine of $32,150. As a condition of probation, the court exercised its authority under federal sentencing guidelines to require a public apology and ordered both Taylor and Aquachem to place a full-page advertisement in the "Charlotte Observer," apologizing for their criminal conduct and alerting businesses to the substantial criminal penalties associated with violating federal and state environmental laws. The case was investigated by EPA's Criminal Investigation Division, the FBI, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigaton and the North Carolina Department of Health, Environment, and Natural Resources.

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