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El Paso Waste Disposal Company Officers Sentenced in Waste Fraud Scheme

Release Date: 03/03/2005
Contact Information:

Contact: Stacie Findon, 202-564-4355 / findon.stacie@epa.gov

(03/03/05) Hector Villa and Denise Y. Villa-Aceves, principals in Villafam Contracting Services, LLC, in El Paso, Texas, were sentenced on Feb. 16 in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in El Paso for their roles in a conspiracy to defraud the City of El Paso. From April 1999 to July 2003, the defendants were involved in a scheme to submit fraudulent invoices to the city. The defendants inflated the amounts they charged for the hazardous waste their company collected and disposed of under a contract with the city. Hector Villa was ordered to serve five years in prison, pay $685,410.35 in restitution to he City of El Paso and will be placed on three years of court supervision when he is released from prison. Denise Y. Villa-Aceves was sentenced to three years of probation and was ordered to perform 300 hours of community service. The case was investigated by the El Paso Office of EPA's Criminal Investigation Division, the FBI and the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. The U.S. attorney's office in El Paso prosecuted this case.