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PA FLORIDA COMPANY AND OFFICERS SENTENCED IN FIREWORKS BLAZE
Release Date: 01/16/98
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FOR RELEASE: JANUARY 16, 1998
FLORIDA COMPANY AND OFFICERS SENTENCED IN FIREWORKS BLAZE
On Jan. 9, Neptune Fireworks Inc., of Dania, Fla., Neptune’s president Itzhak Dickstein, its former vice-president for operations, Leslie Grimes and Neptune’s warehouse manager, Mark Williams, were sentenced in the first hazardous waste case brought in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida in Miami. The defendants caused a fire on Feb. 17, 1997 at the V. Ponte & Sons recycling facility in Pembroke Park, Fla., by illegally concealing thousands of pounds of damaged and otherwise unsaleable fireworks in 12 cardboard bales sent for recycling. During sentencing, the court ordered Neptune to pay restitution totaling $520,600 and placed the company on three years probation. The money will be divided as follows: $185,884 will be paid to V. Ponte & Sons as compensation for the cost of cleaning up and properly disposing of the hazardous waste; $125,000 will go to compensate the Fire Departments of Pembroke Park, Hallandale, Hollywood, Miramar and Broward County for costs incurred in responding to the fire; $50,000 will be spent to publish public service announcements to educate the public on the dangers of fireworks; and the remainder will be paid as a criminal fine. Dickstein received six months home confinement as part of a three year probation sentence. Grimes received six months home confinement as part of a one year of probation sentence and Williams was sentenced to five months in prison followed by five months home confinement as part of three years of supervised release. The case was investigated by EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division, the FBI, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, with the assistance of EPA’s National Enforcement Investigations Center.
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