Albany Man Charged in Asbestos Scam

December 4, 2006 - Calling him one of the leaders of the largest asbestos scam in U.S. history, a federal court in New York sentenced the owner of an Albany asbestos testing lab to 26 months in prison for his role in the scheme.

According to the Albany Times-Union, Timothy Carroll, age 44, admitted he “falsified air sample results and destroyed documents that revealed the illegal relationship between Analytical Laboratories of Albany, which Carroll owned, and AAR Contractors Inc. of Latham.” Charges made against Carroll included mail fraud, federal Clean Air Act violations and filing false income tax returns.

Carroll first admitted to his wrong-doing in 2000, after a year-long investigation by the state Environmental Protection Agency, which revealed that he conspired with the owners of AAR to falsify air test results in order to hide the fact that the contractor was not properly removing asbestos waste.

Carroll will report to prison in January.  Upon his release, he will serve an additional two years of supervised release and 200 hours of community service.  Four of his employees pled guilty as well.

The owners of AAR Contractors were tried two years ago.  During that trial, Alex Salvagno of Loudonville, NY was sentenced to 25 years in prison. His father, Raul Salvagno, was given 19 years. The Times-Union notes that these were the stiffest penalties ever handed down for environmental crimes. 

Salvagno’s employees told the court that he “ordered them to crudely rip asbestos from buildings and falsify up to 75,000 laboratory samples.”  Workers were given no protection and EPA agents, upon investigation at jobsites, found chunks of asbestos left behind as well as asbestos dust.