A Puerto Rico man was sentenced today to 14 months in prison, three years of supervised release and a $10,000 fine for the destruction and filling of wetlands in violation of the Clean Water Act. According to court documents, between January 2020 and December 2023, Awildo Jimenez-Mercado, 41, removed mangroves from wetlands within and around
View All Environmental Crimes Bulletins In This Issue: Cases by District/Circuit Decisions Indictments Guilty Pleas Sentencings Cases by District/Circuit District/Circuit Case Name Statute(s) 9th Circuit/Western District of Washington United States v. Louie Sanft Clean Water Act District of Alaska United States v. Jerome A. Stringfield, et al. Coral smuggling/Conspiracy Eastern District of California United States
North Carolina automotive parts manufacturer and seller, Rudy’s Performance Parts Inc. (Rudy’s), and its owner, Aaron Rudolf, have agreed to pay a total of $10 million in criminal fines and civil penalties for manufacturing, selling and installing devices, commonly known as “defeat devices,” used to remove or disable required emissions controls in motor vehicles. Rudy’s
A Mississippi seafood distributor and two company managers pleaded guilty today to conspiring with others to mislabel seafood and to commit wire fraud by marketing inexpensive and frozen imported substitutes as more expensive and premium local species. Quality Poultry and Seafood Inc. (QPS), the largest seafood wholesaler on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, has agreed to
Clean Harbors Inc. and two of its subsidiaries, Clean Harbors Baton Rouge LLC and Baton Rouge Disposal LLC, have reached an over $5 million agreement with the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to clean up decades-old contamination at the Devil’s Swamp Lake Superfund Site just north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. A complaint filed
