Contractor Sentenced to Six Months’ Home Confinement for Violating Clean Air Act in Asbestos Removal Job

CAMDEN, NJ—A Bergen County, New Jersey man was sentenced today to three years of probation, including six months of home confinement, for conspiring to violate the federal Clean Air Act by improperly removing asbestos from a building, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Vele Bozinoski, 61, of Elmwood Park, New Jersey, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Noel L. Hillman to an indictment charging him with violating the Clean Air Act’s asbestos work practice standards and with conspiring with others to commit that offense. Judge Hillman imposed the sentence today in Camden federal court.

According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court:

In February 2007, Bozinoski hired workers to remove insulation at the former Garden State Paper Mill, a facility that contained more than 160 linear feet of asbestos-containing material. Bozinoski conspired with others to fail to thoroughly inspect the facility for the presence of asbestos or to notify the Environmental Protection Agency of the presence of asbestos, prior to commencing insulation removal, as was required by federal law. Bozinoski also conspired with others to fail to ensure that material containing asbestos was wet prior to stripping it off pipes and other facility components or to seal asbestos-containing material in leak-tight containers until it was collected for disposal.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the FBI, under the direction of Acting Special Agent in Charge David Velazquez; and special agents of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Criminal Investigation Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge William V. Lometti, with the investigation leading to today’s sentence.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathleen P. O’Leary of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Health Care and Government Fraud Unit in Newark.