Owner of East Bay Company Pleads Guilty to Issuing Sham Asbestos Certificates Students Were Licensed to Remove Asbestos Without Proper Training

SAN FRANCISCO—Rogelio Lowe, also known as Roger Lowe, pled guilty yesterday to two counts of mail fraud stemming from his operation of E&D Environmental Safety Training Inc, a company that offered occupational training for asbestos workers, United States Attorney Joseph P. Russoniello announced.

According to the plea agreement, starting in 2007 and continuing into 2009, Lowe 44, of Thornton, Calif., devised a scheme to defraud whereby he provided asbestos training to students for a fee but did not train the students for the required amount of time, and, in several instances, provided little or no training.

Asbestos is classified as a hazardous substance and known carcinogen. The act of removing friable asbestos carries with it a high risk of creating airborne asbestos debris. Exposure to friable asbestos is linked to diseases such as asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma.

By law, any person seeking accreditation as an asbestos worker must complete a training course over four days, eight hours each day. The course includes lectures, demonstrations, at least 14 hours of hands-on training, and individual respirator fit testing. The student must then pass a closed-book examination. Once a person receives a certificate, they must then take an annual refresher course.

According to information in the plea agreement, Lowe provided asbestos removal courses that did not comply with federal law. As part of the scheme, Lowe did not teach the course for the required number of hours; he held classes that were no more than 30 minutes in length, he provided answers to the closed-book examinations, and he forged tests for students that did not attend a test day. Lowe then issued certificates to students and charged their employers accordingly. This scheme extended to both the required four-day initial training and the annual refresher course. Lowe submitted class rosters to the California Division of Industrial Relations, Division of Occupational Safety and Health, also known as Cal/OSHA, falsely reflecting that these students had successfully completed the training and passed the examination, when he knew they had not. Cal/OSHA used and relied on these rosters to add the names of students to its state list of qualified asbestos workers.

The sentencing of Lowe is scheduled for Dec. 2, 2010, at 2:30 p.m. before U.S. District Court Judge Jeffrey S. White in San Francisco. The maximum statutory penalty for each count of violating Title 18, United States Code, Section 1341 (mail fraud) is 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. However, any sentence following conviction would be imposed by the court after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.

Stacey Geis is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Rayneisha Booth and Beth Margen. The prosecution is the result of a two-year investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigative Division. The case was referred to the USEPA and the FBI by Cal/OSHA, who provided assistance throughout the course of the investigation.