A Mt. Lebanon real estate developer already fined a record $1.4 million for illegal removal of asbestos from the old Westinghouse complex in Churchill is now facing a federal criminal charge for the same conduct.
Vikas Jain, 47, chief executive of Paradigm Consultants, was charged last week with one count of knowingly violating the Clean Air Act by having workers remove asbestos without a permit and without protection and dumping it in a landfill not certified to receive asbestos materials.
A criminal complaint based on an investigation by the FBI and EPA was filed Friday and unsealed Monday.
U.S. Attorney Scott Brady labeled Mr. Jain an "unscrupulous developer" who not only harmed the environment with illegal asbestos dumping but put the health of asbestos removal workers at risk.
Mr. Jain, whose many companies focus on residential and commercial real estate development, bought the 150-acre Westinghouse facility in 2012 through one of his corporations, Churchill Developments, with the idea of redeveloping it for mixed use.
Before the sale, he obtained the results of an environmental assessment which identified the presence of materials containing asbestos in floor tiles and pipe insulation throughout the complex.
According to the complaint, Mr. Jain's companies leased space to several tenants between 2012 and 2017, although most of the property remained vacant.
In connection with a licensing agreement in 2015, the U.S. attorney's office said, Mr. Jain obtained two asbestos-abatement permits from the Allegheny County Health Department allowing for the proper removal of asbestos in portions of two structures, buildings 401 and 601.
An asbestos contractor did the inspection, and Mr. Jain signed off on it as CEO of Paradigm.
Two years later Mr. Jain, working through a contractor on the Westinghouse project, obtained a proposal from different abatement company to inspect another structure, Building 501, that Mr. Jain intended to demolish.
The proposal was never completed, prosecutors said, and the inspection never happened.
Instead, from Feb. 1, 2017 and continuing until Feb. 28, 2017, Mr. Jain directed workers to remove asbestos-containing materials from Buildings 501 and 401, including floor tiles and pipe insulation.
He also told them to rent floor grinders to remove and pulverize the tiles, prosecutors said.
Mr. Jain did not apply for or obtain a permit for the abatement, and workers did the removal without the proper protection required by law, the complaint states.
The workers are not identified in the federal court papers, but a previous order in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court indicated they were Guatemalan nationals.
According to the criminal charges, the workers put the debris into black trash bags and took the bags by pickup truck to a dumpster outside one of Mr. Jain's residential properties. From there, the bags ended up in a local landfill.
Prosecutors also said Mr. Jain directed his workers to keep working despite orders from the local fire marshal telling them to stop.
The complaint also says Mr. Jain also took steps to conceal the removal, including ordering workers to clean the floor grinders to remove evidence of asbestos before turning them over to the county health department for inspection.
No attorney was listed for Mr. Jain in court records.
The $1.4 million fine imposed on Mr. Jain is pending appeal in Commonwealth Court and has not been paid.
Torsten Ove: tove@post-gazette.com.
First Published: September 30, 2019, 4:35 p.m.
Updated: September 30, 2019, 6:33 p.m.
