New York asbestos-abatement trial revealed statewide criminal activities spread over 10-year period

The evidence at trial established that for 10 years, the Salvagnos directed their workers to engage in grossly illegal asbestos abatement.

From 1990 until 1999, Alex Salvagno secretly and illegally co-owned ALA, which held itself out as a wholly independent laboratory. The Salvagnos used ALA to defraud victims by creating fraudulent laboratory analysis results which they used to convince clients that all asbestos had been properly removed as promised by the defendants.

Trial evidence further established that illegal collusion between AAR and ALA occurred at more than 1,555 facilities throughout New York State. Many of these projects also involved improper abatement.

Falsification of up to 70,000 laboratory samples allowed the defendants to conceal their improper asbestos abatement at elementary schools, churches, hospitals, State Police barracks, the New York State Legislature office building, and other public buildings and private residences.

Witnesses, including those recently sentenced and many former AAR and ALA employees, testified to "rip and run" activities directed by the Salvagnos and co-defendants that included indoor "snow storms," an euphemism for the release of large amounts of visible asbestos into the air during the removal process.

Evidence established that workers were knowingly sent into asbestos "hot zones" while being encouraged to work illegally without respirators, or without sufficient replacement filters for the respirators.