Archive

June 8, 2022

Real estate developer Baldwin & Sons was fined $6.6 million based on its failures to control erosion and runoff, or contain fluids leaking from equipment, at a luxury home construction site in Orange County, and its failure to implement required best management practices.  The state also found that Baldwin ignored numerous corrective and cease-and-desist orders.  CA

June 3, 2022

FCA US LLC, formerly Chrysler Group LLC, has pleaded guilty to making false and misleading representations about emissions control systems on Jeep Grand Cherokees and Ram 1500s for the 2014-2016 model years.  The company will pay a criminal fine of nearly $100 million, and forfeit over $200 million, for a total of $300 million in penalties.  Fiat Chrysler marketed the vehicles as “clean EcoDiesel,” but installed software features to fraudulently help the vehicles meet emissions standards during testing that could not be met under normal driving conditions.  DOJ

May 24, 2022

The owners of the Motor Vessel Joanna, Empire Bulkers Limited and Joanna Maritime Limited, will pay $2 million and plead guilty to violations of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships, admitting to knowingly falsifying the ship’s Oil Record Book to conceal unlawful discharges of oil.  Modifications to the vessel’s oil content monitor had been made so that discharge samples from the oily water separator were diluted with fresh water, thereby leading the oil content monitor to report erroneous concentrations.  DOJ; USAO ED LA

April 5, 2022

Wind energy provider ESI Energy Inc. pleaded guilty to violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA), agreeing to fines and restitution of $8 million and to implement management and mitigation programs valued at up to $27 million in order to minimize eagle deaths associated with its facilities.  ESI did not apply for “eagle take permits” in connection with wind energy facilities it constructed and operated.  The government alleged that ESI sought to avoid MBTA requirements that could have delayed operation of its facilities or reduced their operation, and received hundreds of millions of dollars in federal tax credits for generating electricity from wind power at facilities that it operated, knowing that multiple eagles would be killed and wounded without legal authorization.  USAO WY

March 9, 2022

Chevron Phillips Chemical Company LP has agreed to pay a $3.4 million penalty and undertake compliance measures valued at $118 million to resolve a federal complaint regarding alleged violations of the Clean Air Act and related laws arising from its flaring at petrochemical facilities in Cedar Bayou, Port Arthur, and Sweeney, Texas.  The government claimed that Chevron Phillips failed to properly operate and monitor its industrial flares, which resulted in excess emissions of harmful air pollution at the three facilities.  EPA

January 31, 2022

Signal Peak Energy LLC (“Signal”) was fined $1 million and sentenced to three years of probation for violating environmental and worker safety regulations at Signal Peak Mine near Roundup, MN. According to the government, Signal habitually violated mandatory health and safety standards in the Mine Safety and Health Act during the mine’s operation. These violations included both environmental safety and worker safety standards. The violations occurred with the full knowledge, direction and participation of the mine’s most senior management during that period, including the president and CEO, the vice president of surface operations, the vice president of underground operations and the safety manager. USAO MN

January 10, 2022

Following his guilty plea on charges related to the filing of false tax returns claiming nonexistent fuel tax credits, Michael Dexter Little was ordered to forfeit $12.3 million and sentenced to 19.5 years in prison.  Little and his fellow fraudsters filed false tax returns in their own names and in the names of identity theft victims, and laundered the proceeds via real estate and other assets. USAO MDFL

December 9, 2021

Monsanto Company has agreed to plead guilty to charges that it used a glufosinate ammonium-based pesticide, sold as Forfeit 280, on corn fields in Hawaii, and then allowed workers to enter the fields during a six-day restricted-entry interval after the product was applied.  Monsanto will pay $12 million and undertake specified environmental compliance programs.  The government further alleged that Monsanto’s actions violated a 2019 Deferred Prosecution Agreement regarding Monsanto’s unlawful spraying of a banned pesticide, methyl parathion, the active ingredient in Penncap-M, on research crops at one of its facilities on Maui. USAO CD Cal

October 13, 2021

West Shore Pipe Line Co. and Buckeye Pipe Line Co., the owner and operator, respectively, of a crude oil pipeline located near Lockport, Illinois, will pay a $1.2 million civil penalty and $7.2 million in damages to resolve federal claims arising from a 2010 breach in the pipeline that discharged 1,800 barrels of oil into a protected wetland.  DOJ

September 23, 2021

Shipping company Diana Wilhelmsen Management Limited was ordered to pay $2 million following its admissions that it violated the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships.  DWM admitted that its vessel, M/V Protefs, unlawfully discharged oily bilge water and knowingly kept a false oil record book.  DOJ; USAO ED LA