SAN DIEGO (AP) - The owner of a Southern California portable toilets business was sentenced to five months in prison for illegally dumping waste into municipal sewer systems in a scheme to avoid paying fees and save the company millions of dollars.
Diamond Environmental Services owner Arie Eric De Jong III, who pleaded guilty to felony charges under an agreement last year, was also fined and placed on three years of probation during sentencing Wednesday, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported .
“It was a huge mistake,” De Jong told U.S. District Judge Roger T. Benitez. “I made a mistake I never thought would get to this level.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Melanie Pierson pushed for a longer term, 12 months, behind bars.
“He’s a thief, pure and simple,” Pierson told the judge.
According to prosecutors, the company illegally emptied its trucks into municipal sewer systems in San Diego, San Marcos, Fullerton, Perris and Huntington Park instead of using specially designated facilities and paying required fees.
The company’s chief operating officer, Warren Van Dam, was sentenced to five years of probation and 250 hours of community service after admitting charges involving the dumping.
The company itself was also placed on probation. Total fines in the case amounted to $2.64 million and the defendants were ordered to pay $2.25 million in restitution to five sanitation agencies. Diamond Environmental Services also forfeited $2.2 million in illegal profits.
Another executive was previously sentenced to probation and fined. Safety and compliance manager Ronald Fabor was convicted last year on two counts of perjury for lying about the dumping to a grand jury.
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Information from: The San Diego Union-Tribune, http://www.utsandiego.com
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