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PA PENN. REAL ESTATE DEV. SENT. AND FINED FOR ASBESTOS CRIMES

Release Date: 5/10/96
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PA PENN. REAL ESTATE DEV. SENT. AND FINED FOR ASBESTOS CRIMES

FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, MAY 9, 1996

PENNSYLVANIA REAL ESTATE DEVELOPER SENTENCED TO TWO AND ONE-HALF YEARS AND FINED $30,000 FOR ASBESTOS REMOVAL CRIMES

Phillip Banks, a Philadelphia real estate developer, was sentenced on May 8 to two and one-half years in prison and fined $30,000 on one felony count of conspiracy, one felony count of failure to follow the National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollution work practices related to asbestos under the Clean Air Act and two felony counts for violating the Clean Air Act by failing to notify authorities of asbestos removal operations. The offenses took place in an office building in downtown Philadelphia in 1994. Banks had agreed to remove the asbestos from the building as a condition of its sale. Specifically, Banks was convicted of directing employee Michael Burrell to remove asbestos pipe insulation from the basement and a crawlspace above the 12th floor of the building, even though Burrell was not trained or certified in asbestos removal. Burrell then assembled a crew of untrained individuals who removed the asbestos, spreading asbestos fibers in the lobby, basement, and 12th floor crawlspace of the building. The asbestos was then illegally dumped in three locations in West Philadelphia which is an economically disadvantaged area of the city. One of the counts of failing to notify was brought against Banks because he failed to comply with an order to cease removing the asbestos and finished the removal without notifying authorities. Banks had been previously fined $5,000 for improper asbestos removal by the City of Philadelphia in a civil action in 1987. This case was the result of a cooperative effort by the EPA Criminal Investigation Division, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, the FBI, and the Philadelphia City Environmental Task Force.

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