EPA's Most Wanted Fugitives: Stories Behind the Crimes

Mauro Valenzuela

When ValuJet Flight 592 caught fire and crashed on May 11, 1996, 110 passengers died. Mauro Valenzuela is the only one indicted in relation to the cause of that crash who has yet to stand trial.\r\n\r\n

The fire on the plane started in the cargo hold, where the airline\'s maintenance contractor, SabreTech, had stowed combustible chemical oxygen generators without properly securing or labeling them.

Valenzuela was one of two mechanics who, along with their supervisor, were charged with mishandling hazardous materials, conspiracy and making false statements. While SabreTech was fined $2 million and ordered to pay $9 million in restitution, Valenzuela\'s co-workers were acquitted.

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Michael Evangelos Psomadakis

In 1993, Psomadakis was the chief engineer on the Nordic Express, a Royal Caribbean cruise boat that discharged oily waste in violation of federal clean water laws. \r\n\r\n

That he lied to the Coast Guard about the pollution ended up providing the U.S. justice system the linchpin in a case that cost Royal Caribbean $9 million for widespread violations of a \"fleetwide conspiracy ... to save millions of dollars by dumping oily waste into the ocean,\" as the New York Times put it. The pivotal case was heard in U.S. courts even though the incident occurred in international waters and Liberia had already dismissed the case (the ship had been flying the Liberian flag).

But while the case rippled throughout the industry, Psomadakis has eluded the FBI since he avoided agents at a Miami hotel \"simply by walking out another exit,\" as reported in a fascinating account in the New York Times.

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William Austin Morgan

The former chairman and CEO of Hydromet Environmental, a Canadian hazardous waste reclamation company doing business in the United States, Morgan was one of five employees indicted in 2006.\r\n\r\n

The company\'s facility in Newman, Ill., allegedly accepted 3.8 million pounds of toxic and reactive hazardous wastes from 1995 to 1998, including cyanide, arsenic, lead and cadmium -- but it had no way to process the wastes. It then shipped the waste to warehouses, landfills and other illegal locations, while allegedly lying to officials about it.\r\n\r\n

Morgan is believed to be living in Canada. If convicted, he could face five years or more in prison, and a fine of up to $250,000.\r\n\r\n

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John Karayannides

While the company he worked for, Sabine Transportation Inc., has already paid its debt to society in the form of a $2 million fine, former vice president John Karyannides, fled the country, probably to Athens, Greece.

The crime occurred in 1999 in the South China Sea, when the crew of a ship dumped 442 metric tons of wheat overboard because it became contaminated with diesel fuel. The wheat was supposed to be used for humanitarian relief in Bangladesh. It ended up on the bottom of the South China Sea, along with the diesel. The crew allegedly claimed that the contaminated wheat had been cleaned first, which was impossible, according to investigators, given the equipment aboard.

Karayannides faces charges of illegal dumping of oil and conspiracy. \r\n\r\n

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Carlos Giordano

Together with his son, Alessandro, Carlos Giordano (a.k.a. \"Carlo\" or \"Karl Jardano\") was arrested in California for selling about two dozen Alfa Romeo cars imported from Italy that met neither Clean Air Act nor vehicle safety standards.\r\n\r\n

Indicted in 2003, each was charged with seven counts of wire fraud and three counts of making false statements in documents required by the Clean Air Act. While it\'s legal to import noncomplying vehicles for personal use, it is illegal to sell them. The men allegedly lied to authorities in claiming the vehicles were for personal use.\r\n\r\n

Not counting penalties for fleeing to Italy, they each face up to five years in prison and a $5 million fine.\r\n\r\n

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Alessandro Giordano

Together with his father, Carlo, Alessandro Giordano was arrested in California for selling about two dozen Alfa Romeo cars imported from Italy that met neither Clean Air Act nor vehicle safety standards.\r\n\r\n

Indicted in 2003, each was charged with seven counts of wire fraud and three counts of making false statements in documents required by the Clean Air Act.\r\n\r\n

Not counting penalties for fleeing to Italy, they each face up to five years in prison and a $5 million fine.\r\n\r\n

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Freik Pluimers

Freik (also possibly spelled Frerik) Pluimers, former president of Saybolt North America Inc. and chairman of its subsidiary, Saybolt Inc., was indicted in 1998 along with David H. Mead, former president and CEO of Saybolt Inc. for allegedly plotting to pay a $50,000 bribe in 1995 to a Panamanian government official. \r\n\r\n

The purpose of the bribe was to \"acquire concessions from the Panamanian Government including expedited tax benefits, and a prime business location along the Panama Canal,\" according to the EPA. The company\'s business was petrochemical laboratory testing.

Mead was sentenced in 1998 to four months in prison, four months of home arrest, three years of supervised release and a $20,000 fine, according to court documents. Saybolt North America agreed to settle a related falsifying documents case with a $3.4 million fine and the bribery case with a $1.5 million fine.

Pluimers, meanwhile, has never stood trial.\r\n\r\n

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Bhavesh H. Kamdar

Scheduled for extradition from India, Kamdar will face charges on 30 counts of mail fraud and money laundering for allegedly overbilling New York State for a contract to remove and replace underground chemical storage tanks.\r\n\r\n

Kamdar was the owner of Industrial Site Services Inc., which won a $4.9 million contract from the state to do the work, but he allegedly overcharged $1.1 million, according to news accounts. He has denied the charges and, according to his lawyer, quoted in The Buffalo News, he plans to stand trial within weeks.

Underground storage tanks, which typically hold oil and gasoline, are prone to developing leaks that can cause widespread and difficult-to-clean contamination of groundwater. Because many rural residents rely on well water, contamination of groundwater can be a serious health threat. Tanks are generally removed if they are leaking, or will be replaced with new tanks that have multiple walls and safety systems to alert operators of leaks.

Kamdar could have to pay $5.9 million if convicted.

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Denis L. Feron

Rather than face charges that he, and five other defendants, had rigged a secret pipe to dump pollutants from a Chemetco Inc. copper smelter into Long Lake in Illinois, Feron allegedly fled to Belgium.

In 1999, he and his colleagues, and the company itself, were charged with conspiring to violate the Clean Water Act. The rest of the co-conspirators were convicted in 2001, and the company went bankrupt, after more than 30 years as one of the nation\'s largest secondary copper smelters. Illinois sealed the facility and the site was proposed for inclusion on the Environmental Protection Agency\'s Superfund list of the most polluted sites in the nation, but it doesn\'t appear to have been cleaned up yet.

The alleged dumping occurred from 1986 to 1996, and the lake was contaminated with zinc, lead and cadmium, which can be toxic to wildlife and humans.

Not counting any penalty for fleeing, Feron faces a maximum sentence of up to five years and a fine of $250,000.

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Joseph Anthony O\'Connor

O\'Connor has been indicted on six counts of violations of the Clean Water Act and conspiracy in relation to allegedly polluting the San Diego Harbor.

It\'s unclear if O\'Connor is the same individual who was accused by Spain, and held briefly in San Diego in 2006 but not convicted, of \"providing a boat used in a foiled attempt to smuggle\" 8.8 tons of hashish worth $40 million.

O\'Connor is believed to be in Malta, the Southern European island nation.

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Robert Fred Smith

Smith was charged with a six-count indictment alleging he violated the Clean Water Act by discharging pollutants into the San Diego Harbor. He\'s also wanted on charges of conspiracy and making false statements.

It\'s unclear if Smith\'s case is related to O\'Connor\'s case.

Smith is believed to be in Malta, the Southern European island nation.

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Paul Vestergaard

As the chief engineer on a vessel, Vestergaard was accused of making false statements and obstructing justice in relation to a case of oil dumping. He allegedly told others to lie to Coast Guard investigators.

Vestergaard is currently in Denmark.

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Jun Wang

Accused of dumping 32 gallons of gasoline from his truck down a storm sewer in Kettering, Ohio, in 2004, Jun Wang -- who goes by a dizzying number of aliases -- is believed to be hiding from the law in China.

\"Investigators said he drove his truck to a shopping center in Kettering, parked over a storm drain and dumped gasoline he had accidentally put into his diesel-powered vehicle,\" according to a report in the Dayton Daily News. \"Mechanics at a nearby tire shop confronted him and he drove away, trailing gas through the lot and the streets. Fire and HAZMAT crews responded to the spill, which got into the Little Beaver Creek.\"

He could face up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

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Larkin Baggett

Baggett, the owner and operator of Chemical Consultants Inc., is was indicted in 2007 and charged with illegally treating and disposing of hazardous waste and illegally discharging chemical wastes into a sewer system. His business dealt mainly in truck wash chemicals, according to an EPA document.\r\n\r\n

That crime generally can be punished with $100,000 and one year in jail per misdemeanor count, or $250,000 and three years in prison for felony counts.

At large, and armed and dangerous, Baggett is believed to be in Utah.\r\n\r\n

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Aage Lokkebraten

Lokkebraten was one of three engineers who served aboard the Norwegian Cruise Line\'s S.S. Norway who were indicted in 2003 for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.\r\n\r\n

Senior First Engineer Lokkebraten and his colleagues, Chief Engineer Knut Sorboe and Peter Solemdal, allegedly conspired to illegally dump oil at sea, to falsify oil record books, and to conceal the pollution. \r\n\r\n

Another unnamed engineer tipped off the EPA to the crime, and the company agreed to pay $1.5 million in fines and other penalties. The tipster was rewarded with $250,000.\r\n\r\n

All three defendants fled before being prosecuted, and their whereabouts are unknown.\r\n\r\n

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Peter Solemdal

Solemdal was one of three engineers who served aboard the Norwegian Cruise Line\'s S.S. Norway who were indicted in 2003 for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.\r\n\r\n

Chief Engineer Peter Solemdal and his colleagues, First Senior Engineer Aage Lokkebraten and Chief Engineer Knut Sorboe, allegedly conspired to illegally dump oil at sea, to falsify oil record books, and to conceal the pollution. \r\n\r\n

Another unnamed engineer tipped off the EPA to the crime, and the company agreed to pay $1.5 million in fines and other penalties. The tipster was rewarded with $250,000.\r\n\r\n

All three defendants fled before being prosecuted, and their whereabouts are unknown.\r\n\r\n

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Knut Sorboe

Sorboe was one of three engineers who served aboard the Norwegian Cruise Line\'s S.S. Norway who were indicted in 2003 for violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.\r\n\r\n

Chief Engineer Knut Sorboe and his colleagues, First Senior Engineer Aage Lokkebraten and Chief Engineer Peter Solemdal, allegedly conspired to illegally dump oil at sea, to falsify oil record books, and to conceal the pollution. \r\n\r\n

Another unnamed engineer tipped off the EPA to the crime, and the company agreed to pay $1.5 million in fines and other penalties. The tipster was rewarded with $250,000.\r\n\r\n

All three defendants fled before being prosecuted, and their whereabouts are unknown.\r\n\r\n

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Omran Alghazouli

Accused of selling the chemical R-12 Freon, smuggled into the United States from Mexico, Alghazouli has been charged with laundering money and conspiracy to smuggle.\r\n\r\n

Together with his brothers, Ahed and Amar, Alghazouli allegedly smuggled cheap R-12 Freon they\'d bought in Mexico for $185 or less, according to court documents, and sold it to automotive supply dealers for $300 or more -- about one-third of the cost of the legal chemical.

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Mahmoud Almhchie

Charged with four felony counts of illegal smuggling, Almhchie was arrested with five 30-pound cylinders of Freon, an ozone-depleting chemical whose production and or importation has been banned since 1990.

The owner of American One Automotive & Oil Co., Almhchie allegedly was found in possession of the cylinders, which originated in Mexico, according to a Department of Transportation report.\r\n\r\n

Ozone-depleting chemicals like freon have been banned in most nations worldwide under provisions of the 1987 Montreal Protocol. The ozone layer protects the Earth from harmful radiation, and while the banning of ozone-depleting chemicals is considered one of the great success stories of the environmental movement, the ozone hole still grows over Antarctica to reach a size about as big as North America each year, and will take decades to repair.\r\n\r\n

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Wendell Baptiste

Arrested in the Virgin Islands, Baptiste is charged with illegally discharging a hazardous substance into navigable water.\r\n\r\n

One of the oldest environmental laws, rules against discharging hazardous wastes into navigable waters were first put on the books in the 19th century. The Clean Water Act, in the 1970s, tightened the rules and led to a new era of enforcement of direct discharges, leading to a remarkable turnaround for many of America\'s rivers and lakes.\r\n\r\n

Baptiste is believed to be living in Trinidad and Tobago.\r\n\r\n

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Butch R. Bustamonte

\"Butch\" Bustamante is charged with ordering the crew of the M/V Katerina to lie to the U.S. Coast Guard about the vessel\'s discharge of oil-contaminated water.\r\n\r\n

He is one of several on the EPA\'s \"most wanted\" list for similar crimes. Because of the international nature of the industry, these alleged criminals are evidently hard to find.\r\n\r\n

He was last known to live in the Philippines.\r\n\r\n

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Raul Chavez-Beltran

Charged in Texas, but believed to be residing in Mexico, Chavez-Beltran is charged with violations of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and with conspiracy and mail fraud.

Chavez-Beltran\'s company, En-Con Environmental Services, Inc., allegedly illegally transported soil contaminated with mercury.

Mercury is a potent toxic metal that, if ingested, can lead to permanent brain damage. Children under the age of 6 (or those still developing in the womb) are the most susceptible.

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Zdzislaw \"Jimmy\" Szypulski

Szypulski, an abestos abatement supervisor in New York, was charged with a one-count indictment of illegal asbestos removal. After failing to appear in court, he is believed to have fled to Warsaw, Poland.

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