The former owner of the country’s largest asbestos abatement training school has been sentenced to prison after having fled the United States after her trial in 2008.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton sentenced Albania Deleon to 87 months in prison to be followed by 3 years of supervised release. She was ordered to pay more than $1.2 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service and several hundred thousand dollars to AIM Mutual Insurance Company. (WCxKit)
In 2008, Deleon was convicted of charges including selling training certificates to thousands of illegal aliens who had not taken the mandatory course. She allegedly placed these unqualified people in temporary positions as certified asbestos abatement workers in public buildings.
From approximately 2001 to 2006, Deleon owned and operated Environmental Compliance Training (ECT), a certified asbestos training school located in Methuen, Mass. ECT normally offered training courses on a weekly basis at its Methuen offices, however, many of the recipients of the certificates never took the required course.
Instead, with Deleon’s knowledge and approval, ECT’s office employees issued certificates of course completion to thousands of individuals who did not take the course. These individuals filed the certificates with the Massachusetts Division of Occupational Safety in order to be authorized to work in the asbestos removal industry. Many of the recipients were illegal aliens who wished to skip the four-daylong course so that they would not forego a week’s pay.
Since ECT’s training course records were subject to inspection, Deleon sought to cover up ECT’s practice of issuing certificates to untrained applicants by having the applicants sign final examination answer sheets that already had been completed and graded, which she maintained in ECT’s files. Based on the evidence at trial and information supplied by the Division of Occupation Safety, ECT issued training certificates to more than 2,000 untrained individuals.
Deleon is the fifth environmental criminal captured since the EPA fugitive website was launched in December 2008. (WCxKit)
“Today’s sentence marks the final chapter in bringing Albania Deleon to justice,” said EPA’s Cynthia Giles. “Committing environmental crimes to make a profit that put workers and our communities at risk [carries] serious consequences.”
Author Robert Elliott, executive vice president, Amaxx Risk Solutions, Inc. has worked successfully for 20 years with many industries to reduce Workers Compensation costs, including airlines, healthcare, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. See www.LowerWC.com for more information. Contact: Info@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com.
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