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Pennsylvania Man Sentenced for Falsifying Underground Storage Tank Closure Reports
Release Date: 09/28/2005
Contact Information:
Contact: Dave Ryan, 202-564-4355 / ryan.dave@epa.gov
(9/28/05) Michael Klusaritz of Whitehall, Pa., was sentenced on Sept. 15 by the U.S. District Court for Eastern Pennsylvania to serve 21 months in prison, pay $112,220.06 in restitution and serve 36 months supervised release. This sentence is the result of his June 2005 guilty plea to charges of filing false underground storage tank (UST) closure reports. Between 2001 and 2003, Klusaritz prepared false UST closure reports while employed at Boyko's Petroleum Services, Inc., in Whitehall, Pa. As a result, Boyko customers were billed more than $110,000 for reports which contained falsified laboratory analyses and forged signatures. The false reports prepared by Klusaritz were submitted to the customers and to the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. Falsification of underground storage tank closure reports can prevent regulators from being aware of potential groundwater contamination. This was not Klusaritz's first conviction for an environmental crime. In 1997, he was sentenced to one year in prison, ordered to pay $40,000 in restitution and sentenced to serve three years probation for his involvement in a laboratory fraud case involving Hess Laboratories in East Stroudsburg, Pa. The case involving Klusaritz's activities at Boyko was investigated by the Philadelphia Office of EPA's Criminal Investigation Division and the EPA Office of Inspector General. It was prosecuted by the U.S. attorney's office in Philadelphia.
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