Texas Dredging Company Charged, Faces $200K Fine Over 2016 Oil Spill April 26, 2021
A Texas-based dredging company has been charged with violating the Clean Water Act in connection with a coastal Louisiana oil spill in 2016 and faces a fine of up to $200,000, the Environmental Protection Agency reported.
According to the Bill of Information, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Company LLC, negligently discharged and caused to be discharged a harmful quantity of oil into a navigable water of the United States, upon adjoining shorelines, and affecting the United States’ natural resources.
The spill took place on Sept. 5, 2016, on the edge of Bay Long near the Chenier Ronquille barrier island, which is east of Grand Isle.
Owner of Utah Trucking Companies Pleads Guilty to Role in FedEx Trucking Bribery Scheme Published: 10 April 2021 10 April 2021
Salt Lake City, Utah - Hubert Ivan Ugarte, 52, of Draper, Utah, pleaded guilty for his role in two separate fraud schemes last week in federal court. Ugarte first pleaded guilty to charges related to a federal bribery case involving the procurement of FedEx Ground (FXG) contract shipping routes worth $24 million dollars of profit and also pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining a federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan for other trucking companies.
In the bribery case, Ugarte was convicted of fraud and money laundering charges for his involvement in a pay-to-play trucking scheme where prosecutors alleged that Ugarte was one of ten defendants who paid approximately $1 million in bribes to the Utah FXG Ground Hub manager in order to exploit the manager’s position with FedEx and make their trucking businesses as lucrative as possible.
SALT LAKE CITY Hubert Ivan Ugarte of Draper, Utah, pleaded guilty for his role in two separate fraud schemes last week in federal court. Ugarte first pleaded guilty to charges related to a federal bribery case involving the procurement of FedEx Ground (FXG) contract shipping routes worth $24 million dollars of profit and also pleaded guilty to fraudulently obtaining a federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan for other trucking companies.
In the bribery case, Ugarte was convicted of fraud and money laundering charges for his involvement in a pay-to-play trucking scheme where prosecutors alleged that Ugarte was one of ten defendants who paid approximately $1 million in bribes to the Utah FXG Ground Hub manager in order to exploit the manager s position with FedEx and make their trucking businesses as lucrative as possible.
CREW sues DOT for records on investigations into Elaine Chao
March 8, 2021
Photography by James F. X. O Gara, under a Creative Commons license.
Last spring, then-President Trump’s drastic changes to the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General raised significant questions around the integrity of the office and its ability to conduct fair and unbiased investigations into misconduct by officials like then-current Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao. CREW is suing DOT, the DOT Office of Inspector General, and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) for records on Trump’s reshuffling of DOT OIG leadership to put political appointees in charge.