Man sentenced in for role in illegal perc
disposal scam
On Wednesday, December 3, a man charged
with violating environmental laws in an illegal perc disposal
scandal was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison and
ordered to pay $1.29 million in penalties by the U.S. District
Court in Los Angeles, CA.
Hormoz Pourat, 45, was the vice president
of AAD Distribution and Dry Cleaning Services, Inc., and the
manager of Right Choice, Inc., hazardous waste disposal
businesses that handled perchloroethylene for drycleaning
businesses, as well as flammable solvents for automobile repair
shops.
In addition to the jail time and financial
penalties, Pourat will not be allowed to engage in any
hazardous waste business dealings during a three-year
probationary period.
“Mr. Pourat engaged in long-term and
elaborate schemes to hide his violations from city and state
inspectors so that he and his partners could continue to make a
profit at their customers’ expense,” said Assistant
Attorney General Sansonetti. “But their schemes
ultimately failed as is evidenced by his sentencing
today.”
According to Sansonetti, who joined
attorney Debra W. Yang of the Central District of
California office in prosecuting the case, AAD continued to
pick up hazardous waste containers filled with perc even after
the company’s facility had exceeded the number of storage
containers permissible by the law.
Sansonetti added that Pourat and two other
defendants hid the violations from inspectors by falsifying
shipping manifests and sending storage drums off site prior to
inspections to other facilities not equipped for handling
hazardous waste storage.
The two other defendants charged in the
case were Behzad Kahoolyzadeh of West Los Angeles, whose trial
is still pending, and Harry Pourat, Hormoz’s brother who
committed suicide after fleeing the country.
Prior to being sentenced in Los Angeles,
Hormoz Pourat was also found guilty in Colorado where Jefferson
County District Court Judge Brian Boatright ordered him to pay
a $100,000 fine and spend 17 years in prison — the
longest jail sentence ever levied for an environmental crime in
the U.S.
In all, Pourat, his brother and four AAD
employees — including Behzad Kahoolyzadeh and managers
Robert Hearsch, Aaron Rios and Patricia Hajduch — faced
34 criminal counts in Colorado, including charges of
racketeering, forgery, attempting to influence a public
servant, violations of the Colorado Hazardous Waste Act and
conspiracy to commit violations of the Colorado Hazardous Waste
Act.
Before closing its doors in the early part
of 2001, AAD Disposal was suspected of cheating about 300
drycleaners located throughout the western and midwestern
United States out of approximately $80,000 a month for a period
of five years.
By avoiding the cost of incineration and
distillation, AAD probably saved several hundreds of dollars
per drum.
Cleanup costs for the main AAD facility
headquartered in Vernon, CA, and other buildings located in
Chino, where the company’s waste had also been stored,
are estimated to be in the ballpark of $1 million.
The cases were investigated by several
agencies that worked in conjunction with one another, including
the United States Environmental Protection Agency, Criminal
Investigations Division; the United States Department of
Transportation; the California Environmental Protection Agency,
Department of Toxic Substances Control; the City of Vernon; and
the Colorado State Attorney General's Office.
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