Real estate developer Vikas Jain admitted that he illegally dumped asbestos during the renovation of the former Westinghouse complex in Churchill.
Mr. Jain, of Mt. Lebanon, waived indictment by grand jury on Thursday and pleaded guilty to a single count of knowingly violating the Clean Air Act.
U.S. District Judge Joy Flowers Conti will sentence him in January. She released him on a $100,000 bond.
Mr. Jain, chief executive of Paradigm Consultants, was charged Sept. 27 following an investigation by the FBI and EPA.
Mr. Jain has also been fined $1.4 million by the county for the same conduct, although that fine is on appeal.
He admitted that he had workers remove asbestos from two buildings at the Westinghouse site without a permit and without worker protection and then dump the materials in a landfill not authorized to accept asbestos.
Jain had bought the property through one of his companies in 2012. During renovations of the buildings from Feb. 1 through Feb. 28, 2017, he ordered his workers to remove asbestos-containing materials such as pipe insulation and floor tiles from two buildings. The materials were taken to one of his residential properties and tossed in a dumpster to be taken to a landfill.
Mr. Jain also tried to conceal what the workers were doing by having floor grinders used on the site cleaned of asbestos before returning them to rental companies and before the county's health department could inspect them.
First Published: October 14, 2019, 4:27 p.m.