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EPA Fugitives - Captured/Surrendered
On this page, we provide information about fugitives who have either been captured and returned to federal authorities or who have surrendered to federal authorities. They will face their original charges; have a sentence imposed against them; or complete their original sentence. To view a complete listing of EPA Fugitives still at-large, please visit the EPA Fugitives web page.
2009
2008
Joseph A. O’Connor
- Joseph O’Connor is the president and owner of Britannia Shipping International, a ship brokering business based in Malta.
- During 2005-6, the F/V Maru, a 150-foot fishing vessel owned by O’Connor that was docked in San Diego, underwent renovation work which produced concrete waste, scrap metal, and grinding waste.
- The U.S. Coast Guard received allegations that O'Connor and Robert Smith were dumping all the waste overboard at night.
- On August 10, 2007, a six-count indictment was returned in the Southern District of California charging Britannia Shipping, LTD, LLC, O'Connor, and Smith with conspiracy, unlawful discharge of pollutants, unlawful discharge of plastics, and three counts of false statements.
- O’Connor fled the jurisdiction before he was indicted and has been listed on the EPA Fugitives list since its creation on December 10, 2008.
- O’Connor was arrested in Malta on July 15, 2009.
- On October 23, 2009, Joseph O’Connor was returned to the United States by the United States Marshals Service.
- On October 26, 2009, O’Connor had his initial appearance and was arraigned. Pursuant to the terms of the negotiated plea, O’Connor pled guilty to Count 4 of the indictment (false statement); and defendant Britannia Shipping, LTD., pled guilty to Count 2 of the indictment (CWA felony). O’Connor was sentenced to a term of one year probation and ordered to pay a special assessment of $100. Britannia Shipping, LTD., was sentenced to a term of one year probation, and ordered to pay a criminal fine of $70,000 and a special assessment of $400.
Robert Smith
- Smith worked for Joseph O’Connor, president and owner of Britannia Shipping International, a ship brokering business based in Malta.
- During 2005-6, the F/V Maru, a 150-foot fishing vessel owned by O’Connor that was docked in San Diego, underwent renovation work which produced concrete waste, scrap metal, and grinding waste.
- The U.S. Coast Guard received allegations that O'Connor and Smith were dumping all the waste overboard at night.
- On August 10, 2007, a six-count indictment was returned in the Southern District of California charging Britannia Shipping, LTD, LLC, O'Connor, and Smith with conspiracy, unlawful discharge of pollutants, unlawful discharge of plastics, and three counts of false statements.
- Smith fled the jurisdiction before he was indicted and has been listed on the EPA Fugitives list since its creation on December 10, 2008.
- Smith surrendered to authorities in Malta and was returned to the United States.
- On August 10, 2009 he made his initial appearance in court.
- On August 13, 2009 Smith pled guilty to a charge of conspiracy.
- On September 2, 2009, the District Court accepted Smith's guilty plea to a charge of conspiracy to discharge pollutants and commit false statements and he is scheduled to be sentenced on October 26, 2009.
- Smith's sentencing has been rescheduled for December 1, 2009.
Robert Wainwright
- Wainwright was the manager of Sterling Material Services in Lake County, Indiana. The company, which separated metal from slag and brick waste from steel mills, was alleged to have been disposing of the waste into an adjacent wetland without a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers.
- When the Northern Indiana Environmental Crimes Task Force, which includes representatives of EPA’s Criminal Enforcement (CID), conducted a federal search warrant at the site and a follow-on consent-search at his residence, they discovered firearms and ammunition. Since Wainwright had a prior felony conviction, his possession of firearms was illegal.
- On August 1, 2007, Wainwright was indicted on a firearms felony charge for a convicted felon in possession of firearms, 18 USC 922 (q)(1). He was convicted of that charge by a federal jury in the Northern District of Indiana.
- He also was charged by the Superior Court of Lake County, Indiana, for allegedly discharging a pollutant into the waters of Indiana.
- While he was awaiting sentencing, on the federal firearm charges, he fled the U.S. for Mexico.
- On July 14, 2009, Wainwright was arrested by the Mexican police, who then turned him over to law enforcement personnel from the U.S. Marshal's Service (USMS) and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). He is in the process of being returned to the United States to face the charges against him.
- On July 31, 2009, Wainwright was transferred to Indiana where he made his initial appearance before the United States District Court, Northern District of Indiana. He will remain in custody until his sentencing, currently scheduled for September 16, 2009.
- Wainwright was sentenced to 9 years incarceration on September 16, 2009 in the Northern District of Indiana on federal weapons charges.
Larkin Baggett
- On September 19, 2007, Baggett, owner/operator of Chemical Consultants, Inc. of North Salt Lake, Utah, was indicted in the District of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, on four felony counts of violating the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Title 42 Section 6928(d)(2)(A) and two felony counts of federal Clean Water Act Title 33 Section 1319(c)(2)(A).
- Chemical Consultants, Inc. was a company that mixes and sells chemical products for use in various industries and was a large quantity generator of hazardous waste.
- Chemical Consultants, Inc. is alleged to have dumped, without a permit, hazardous waste on to a gravel-covered portion of property leased to his business in 2003 and 2005.
- He is also alleged to have dumped chemical wastes into the sanitary sewer in 2004 and 2005 which caused a total of 22 pass-through events at the South Davis Sewer District in Davis County, Utah.
- It is alleged that he disposed of waste from sulfuric acids, hydrofluoric and hydrochloric acids that he used to produce products his company sold.
- Baggett was arrested on the above charges on September 20, 2007, by federal EPA-CID special agents and the Utah Attorney General’s Office agents.
- He was subsequently released from federal custody with conditions pending his trial.
- On April 22, 2008, a federal arrest warrant was issued for Baggett for violating the conditions of his release pending his trial.
- His trial was scheduled to begin on June 2, 2008.
- Baggett was taken into Federal custody on March 13, 2009 in Florida.
- On April 16 2009, Baggett was charged by a federal Grand Jury in Miami with assaulting law enforcement officers and illegally possessing eight firearms while he was a fugitive from the District of Utah on an environmental crimes prosecution.
- July 6, 2009, Baggett pled guilty to possessing eight firearms, including assault rifles, while a fugitive from justice in Utah, three Counts of assaulting Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Special Agents, and one count related to assaulting a Monroe County deputy sheriff, all using a deadly and dangerous weapon, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 111 and 922(g). Baggett also entered guilty pleas on two of the Counts brought against him in Utah (transferred to South Florida pursuant to Rule 20 of the Federal Criminal Rules), which charged he violated an effluent standard, pretreatment standard, and prohibition, and that he illegally disposed of hazardous waste without a permit, in violation of Title 33, United States Code, Sections 1319(c)(2)(A), 1317(d), 40 C.F.R. § 403.5(b)(2), Title 42, United States Code, Section 6928(d)(2)(A), and Title 18, United States Code, Section 2.
- Sentencing is scheduled for October 14, 2009
- On October 14, 2009, Larkin Baggett was sentenced to a total of 20 years incarceration: the statutory maximum for the environmental counts (3 years for Clean Water Act crimes and 5 years for hazardous waste crimes) and 12 years for illegally possessing firearms and aggravated assault on law enforcement officers.
Bhavesh H. Kamdar
- On June 30, 2004, Bhavesh Kamdar was indicted in the Western District of New York in Buffalo, New York, on a 30 count indictment, charging mail fraud and money laundering, in violation of Title 18 USC 1341 and 18 USC 1957.
- Bhavesh Kamdar, an environmental consultant and former president of Industrial Site Services, Incorporated (ISS), was awarded a $4.9 million Underground Storage Tank (UST) remedial contract by the New York State Office of General Services (NYOGS), which included a $500,000 performance bond premium/collateral price that Kamdar falsely declared to have paid, but he did not make.
- During the performance of the contract, Kamdar received from New York State over $500,000 installment refunds of the performance bond costs to which he was not entitled. In addition, the indictment charges that Kamdar laundered the monies he received from over-billing New York State into his personal financial accounts.
- The Indictment is seeking the forfeiture of over $5.9 million.
- Prior to his indictment, Kamdar left the United States and returned to India.
- On July 16, 2004, an arrest warrant for Kamdar was issued by the United States District Court, Western District of New York, based upon on the indictment.
- On August 2006, Kamdar, a fugitive living in Rajkot, India, was arrested by the Rajkot Police, as a subject of an INTERPOL Red Notice.
- On October 13, 2006, Kamdar was released on bail from India custody. Subsequent to his release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office had been seeking extradition of Kamdar through coordination with the appropriate government agencies and countries.
- On February 18, 2009, Kamdar was arrested by EPA Special Agents at JFK International Airport.
- Kamdar was arraigned on February 19, 2009, when he plead not guilty. He was released from federal custody on a $1,000,000 bond pending the scheduling of his trial.
- Trial date has been set for September 22, 2009, in the Western District of New York.
- On October 22, 2009, U. S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara declared a mistrial after jurors told him they were deadlocked.
David Allen Phillips
- In July of 2001, David Allan Phillips went to trial on violations of the Clean Water Act as well as Money Laundering and Wire Fraud in the U.S. District of Montana. Phillips was convicted of multiple violations of the Clean Water Act and Conspiracy to violate the Clean Water Act at trial in the U.S. District Court of Montana. Phillips conviction resulted from a recreational home site development. Phillips property and subdivision development caused significant impacts to a wetland areas and a water of the U.S. known as Fred Burr Creek in Phillipsburg, Montana.
- In January of 2002, Phillips was sentenced to 3 months of home confinement, 3 months in a pre-release center in Butte, MT. and five years of probation.
- In February 2003, Phillips violated his probation resulting in the U.S. District Court revoking his probation and sentencing Phillips to serve 33 months of incarceration due to the July 2001 convictions of the Clean Water Act.
- In August 2003, a case was brought before a Federal Grand Jury in the U.S. District of Montana related to David Allan Phillip's violating several conditions of his probation. The alleged violations include providing false information to the U.S. District Court. Phillips allegedly provided false financial affidavits to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals as well as the U.S. District Court of Montana in January and March of 2003.
- Phillips was indicted by a U.S. Federal Grand Jury in August of 2003 for two counts of Perjury/False Declarations before the U.S. Courts under Title 18 U.S.C. 1623.
- While Phillips was serving a 33 month sentence of incarceration due to the July 2001 conviction in the U.S. District Court of Montana, Phillips escaped from Federal Prison in Sheridan, Oregon in March 2004.
- Phillips remained a fugitive from justice until his apprehension in March of 2008. A combined effort by the Mexican Law Enforcement Officers, the U.S. Marshall's office, and the U.S. EPA-CID resulted in Phillips deportation from Mexico where he was taken into U.S. Federal custody in late March 2008.
- On April 5, 2008, Phillips was arraigned on the escape charges in the U.S. Oregon District Court. Currently Phillips is facing charges in both U.S. District Court in Oregon and Montana.
- On November 18, 2008, Philips pled guilty to an Indictment, which charged the crime of escape in violation of 18 USC 751. He was sentenced to 1 year in prison and 2 years supervised release.
- Phillips was arraigned in the District Court of Montana on February 25, 2009. A trial date has not been set and he is in federal custody.
- On April 27, 2009, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeremiah C. Lynch, David Phillips pled guilty to one count of perjury. The charge arose after Phillips appeared in federal district court in Missoula, in March 2003, following his arrest for violating the conditions of his probation. During the course of his initial appearance, he filed a financial affidavit with the Court that misrepresented both his total income and the source of some of that income. The Court relied on the information in the financial affidavit in making a decision about whether Phillips could afford to hire his own lawyer or should receive court-appointed counsel.
- On July 31, 2009, David Phillips was sentenced before Judge Donald W. Molloy in the District of Montana, and received 27 months jail time for his guilty plea to perjury, with 3 years of supervised release. He also was ordered to pay restitution in the amount of $3,690.
- More information...