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PA INFECTIOUS MED. WASTE HAULER PLEADS GUILTY TO MAIL FRAUD

Release Date: 5/17/96
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PA INFECTIOUS MED. WASTE HAULER PLEADS GUILTY TO MAIL FRAUD

FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, MAY 17, 1996

INFECTIOUS MEDICAL WASTE HAULER PLEADS GUILTY TO MAIL FRAUD IN SOUTH CAROLINA INSURANCE SCHEME

Carnell Rivers of Hampton, S.C., and his corporation, Carnell Rivers Trucking Inc., pleaded guilty on May 13 to five felony counts for mailing false insurance documents to obtain permits to haul infectious medical waste in South Carolina, Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania. The wastes were transported to a facility in Hampton County, S.C., where they were incinerated. Insurance was required for hauling the wastes to cover the cost of cleanup in the event of an accident. Rivers, one of South Carolina's most active medical waste haulers, cancelled the required liability insurance of his firm in May 1993. From May 1993 until April of 1995 he avoided insurance costs by directing employees to falsify insurance records and submit false proof of insurance certificates through the mail and by telefax in order to obtain the state permits. Rivers will be sentenced after a presentence investigation has been completed. Rivers faces a sentence of up to 25 years in prison and a fine of up to $1.25 million. The case is the result of a cooperative effort between the EPA Criminal Investigation Division and the Office of Criminal Investigations of the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

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