Staff Report
A Syracuse-area man pleaded guilty in a federal court Friday to several charges related to an asbestos-abatement scam that targeted the Oneonta Job Corps Academy and several other sites throughout the state.
Frank Onoff, whose age was unavailable, faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced March 12 in Utica, according to federal prosecutors.
Onoff, acting as an asbestos-removal supervisor for Paragon Environmental Construction Inc., was indicted last May along with six employees of Certified Environmental Systems, Inc.
The indictment describes a decade-long scheme in which asbestos was removed illegally and left behind in numerous buildings and homes, mainly in the Syracuse area. The air-monitoring company gave the asbestos-abatement contractors false test results that led building owners to believe asbestos had been properly removed, according to the indictment.
Fraudulent air-monitoring results were generated for projects at schools, churches, a television station, a facility for the mentally disabled, a sorority house, a library's reading room, private homes and government buildings, according to prosecutors.
The Job Corps work was performed in 2003 and involved the removal of 90 feet of pipe insulation from a campus building, according to the federal indictment.
Onoff admitted he participated in a conspiracy with CES to defraud the federal government; violate the Clean Air Act; violate the Toxic Substances Control Act; and commit mail fraud.
As part of his plea deal, Onoff has agreed to cooperate in the cases against the remaining defendants, according to prosecutors.
Others charged include CES owner Barbara Duchene and employees Nicole Copeland, Elisa Dunn, Sandy Allen and Thomas Juliano, who are all from the Syracuse area.
