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THREE MEN CONSPIRED TO USE HOMELESS MEN FOR ASBESTOS REMOVAL
Release Date: 02/05/99
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FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 1999
THREE MEN CONSPIRED TO USE HOMELESS MEN FOR ASBESTOS REMOVAL
Chance Calvin Gaines of Arab, Ala., James Edward Bragg and Buddy Vernon Frazier of Chattanooga, Tenn., were sentenced to prison on Jan. 28, in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin in Madison for conspiring to use untrained homeless men to remove asbestos in violation of the Clean Air Act. Gaines was sentenced to 33 months, Frazier to 30 months, and Bragg to 24 months. In 1996, under Frazier’s direction, Gaines and Bragg transported workers recruited from Georgia and Tennessee to the Weyerhaeuser Door and Stile manufacturing facility in Marshfield, Wis. At the facility, they stripped asbestos insulation without following federal regulations required to prevent exposure to airborne asbestos fibers. Inhalation of asbestos fibers can cause a lung disease known as “asbestosis,” lung cancer, and mesothelioma which is a cancer of the chest and abdominal cavity. In addition, the defendants also conspired to use false Social Security account numbers for the men to obtain asbestos worker certifications from the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services, Frazier also obtained false identification cards for men. The case was investigated by the EPA Criminal Investigation Division, the Social Security Administration’s Office of Inspector General, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the Wisconsin Department of Health and Family Services.
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