Property Manager Gets Prison Term for Illegal Asbestos Removal

August 16, 2006 - A New York City property manager was sentenced by a Federal Court to 27 months in prison, charged with conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act. 

Glenn Middleton, 51, a resident of Syracuse, NY, was the property manager for East Coast Capital LLC, which is based in New York City. The company bought 243-45 Water Street in Syracuse and planned to renovate it, and sell it, according to the US Attorney’s office.

Syracuse’s NewsChannel 9 reported that the company “illegally removed asbestos and perchloroethylene from the Water Street building, and put employees in harms way.”

Records note that untrained employees were ordered to remove the asbestos and none of them were issued protective clothing.  Throughout the United States, only licensed contractors may perform asbestos abatement.  East Coast Capital LLC was not licensed.

After the materials were removed, notes the news report, the asbestos was illegally trashed in dumpsters located in various places across the city and the perchloroethylene was dumped into a sump pump. 

Middleton is not the only one charged in this case.  East Coast Capital and Andrew Swapp, the company’s director of acquisitions, have also pleaded guilty to violating the federal Clean Air Act and will be sentenced in late August.