FEDS INDICT CES, INC.
Prosecutors charge Syracuse, NY-based laboratory with falsifying asbestos air-quality tests

June 22, 2009 -- A New York federal grand jury last Friday indicted a Syracuse-based environmental laboratory, Certified Environmental Services, Inc. (CES), for falsifying test results to cover up inadequate asbestos removal projects in local homes, colleges, and businesses throughout the city.

According to the 16-count indictment, CES Inc. is charged with providing false air quality results to building contractors, who would then turn over the false reports to dozens of building owners to mislead them into believing asbestos had been properly and fully removed.

Prosecutors said the scheme went on for 10 years. The buildings where asbestos and asbestos containing materials still reside are the following: a Syracuse University sorority house, a furniture warehouse, a medical office building, Syracuse television station WSTM, a reading room at the Kellogg Library in Cincinnatus and Cortland Counties, and a Jobs Corps building in Oneonta.

Government lawyers maintain that CES was in conspiracy with numerous upstate New York contractors. CES company leaders and managers refused to reveal how many contractors were in on the conspiracy. No contractors have been charged at this time.

This is the third major case involving asbestos fraud in the past five years within upstate New York.

The truth about asbestos

Asbestos is still imported and used in the United States for its insulation properties, despite the fatal health consequences associated with the widely used but toxic fire retardant. The United States imported and used an estimated 1,820 tons of asbestos in 2007, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Government sources estimate that in the next decade more than 35,000 people nationwide will be diagnosed with the deadliest form of asbestos-related cancer, mesothelioma. This disease is most often the result of industrial workplace exposure – and usually contracted through employers’ blatant disregard for the health and safety of their workers. That’s why people diagnosed with occupational asbestos disease have strong cases in court.

Time to seek justice

Weitz & Luxenberg has protected the legal rights of workers since 1986 – longer than most law firms in the nation. And in that time the firm's mesothelioma lawyers have won several billion dollars in verdicts and settlements for clients.

If you have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, and seek FREE legal guidance and answers to your concerns, please notify us through the communication form on this page. We will pursue your claim with vigilance to help you pay for medical bills, lost wages, and damages. There is no cost to you until we win a settlement or a verdict.