Corporate Crime Case Database

On August 27, 2025, V. Ships Norway, A.S. pleaded guilty to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (33 U.S.C § 1908(a)). The company was sentenced to pay a $2 million fine, complete a four-year term of probation, and implement an Environmental Compliance Plan.

V. Ships Norway operated the M/T Swift Winchester. On several occasions, crew members transferred oily waste from the vessel’s incinerator waste oil tank into the sewage tank. That oily waste was then discharged directly into the ocean without using the required pollution prevention equipment. 
The vessel’s Chief Engineer also ordered the crew to clean the Oil Water Separator filters on the ship’s deck. The crew hosed off the filters, allowing the oil and debris to run over the side of the ship into the ocean. The vessel then entered the ports of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Port Arthur, Texas, with a knowingly falsified Oil Record Book.

The U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service and Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Port Arthur conducted the investigation.
 

On August 6, 2025, a court sentenced Jeremy Pierce and his company, Pierce Diesel Performance, to jointly pay a $375,000 fine and complete three-year terms of probation. Pierce pleaded guilty to a felony violation of the Clean Air Act for tampering with a monitoring device (42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(2)(C)). Pierce Diesel Performance pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act (CAA) for providing technical support to customers nationwide who purchased tuning devices and tunes from his brother Barry Pierce's company, Gorilla Diesel Performance (GDP) (18 U.S.C. § 371).

A court sentenced Barry Pierce and his companies, GDP Tuning and Gorilla Performance, in July 2024, after they pleaded guilty to conspiracy and violating the CAA (18 U.S.C. § 371; 42 U.S.C. § 7413). Pierce served four months’ incarceration, with one year of supervised release. GDP Tuning and Gorilla Performance are completing five-year terms of probation. All defendants were ordered to jointly pay a $1 million fine.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation.

On August 5, 2025, Allwaste Onsite LLC d/b/a Onsite Environmental (Onsite) pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Water Act (CWA) for bypassing treatment processes in violation of its pretreatment permit (33 U.S.C. §1319(c)(2)(A)).

Onsite is an environmental management company that provides services related to non-hazardous liquid waste hauling and treatment. The investigation revealed that Onsite bypassed treatment processes and discharged untreated waste products directly into the sewer system at its Nashville facility, in violation of the Nashville Metro Water Services (MWS) pretreatment permit program. Plant supervisors directed employees to send untreated waste directly to the sewer when the equipment was broken or the plant exceeded its capacity to properly process wastes. Those same supervisory employees tried to cover up the illegal discharges by manipulating a sampling device that MWS installed at the facility to monitor the company’s discharges.

Onsite agreed to pay a $512,000 fine (which represents $16,000 per day of bypassing), and to complete a three-year term of probation. As a special term of probation, Onsite must comply with a previous state court Order entered into with MWS to enact a facility operating plan. Additionally, as part of the state court Order, Onsite paid the following: $86,628 to MWS for expenses related to sewer repairs and clean-up, $299,576 for surcharges related to pollutant exceedances, and $50,387 for water and sewer charges, as well as implementing several plant and equipment upgrades.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Criminal Investigation Division and EPA Office of Inspector General conducted the investigation. 

From February 2015 to April 2021, Cadence Design Systems Inc. (Cadence), a multinational electronic design automation (EDA) technology company headquartered in San Jose, California, and its indirectly owned and wholly controlled subsidiary in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Cadence Design Systems Management (Shanghai) Co. Ltd. (Cadence China), engaged in a conspiracy to commit export control violations in connection with the provision of EDA tools that were subject to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR) to the National University of Defense Technology (NUDT), a restricted PRC military university, through Central South CAD Center (CSCC), an alias for NUDT, and another associated entity, Phytium Technology Co. Ltd. (Phytium), without seeking or obtaining the requisite licenses from the Department of Commerce. Specifically, Cadence, Cadence China, and their employees exported, reexported, and transferred in-country U.S.-origin EDA tools to CSCC in the PRC, despite having knowledge that CSCC was an alias for NUDT. As a result, Cadence and Cadence China exported and caused to be exported EDA tools at least 59 times through September 2020, when Cadence terminated Cadence China’s business relationship with CSCC due to CSCC’s association with NUDT.

On July 28, 2025, the Department and Cadence announced that Cadence had agreed to plead guilty to resolve the criminal investigation and entered into a parallel administrative settlement agreement with the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security.  In its agreements with the government, Cadence agreed to pay criminal and civil penalties and forfeiture totaling more than $140.6 million.

On July 21, 2025, Branden Trager and Mayhem Services, LLC, pleaded guilty to a superseding information charging them with a Lacey Act misdemeanor (16 U.S.C. §§ 3372(a)(2)(A), 3373(d)(2)). Sentencing is scheduled for October 16, 2025.

Trager owns Mayhem Services and runs hunting and fishing guided trips in the Pacific Northwest. Trager organizes hunts specifically targeting the harlequin duck, a rare sea bird prized by hunters. Washington State closed harlequin duck hunting season from 2022 to 2024, so Trager took three hunting parties to British Columbia, Canada, where it was still legal to hunt them. However, Canadian law prohibits non-citizens from obtaining guiding licenses. Trager conspired with a Canadian taxidermist to illegally shoot the harlequin and then export the mounts back to the United States.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service conducted the investigation, with assistance from Homeland Security Investigations, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, and British Columbia Conservation Officer Service.

On July 15, 2025, Eagle Ship Management, LLC, pleaded guilty to a knowing violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (33 U.S.C. Sect. 1908). This case stems from the deliberate discharge of approximately 10,000 gallons of oil-contaminated bilge water overboard in U.S. waters off the coast of New Orleans from the M/V Gannet Bulker, a foreign flag vessel registered in the Marshall Islands. Sentencing is scheduled for October 16, 2025.

The illegal discharge was reported via social media to the U.S. Coast Guard by a foreign crewmember on the ship. At the time of the discharge, the Gannet Bulker was at an anchorage near the mouth of the Mississippi River in New Orleans and within the navigable waters of the United States. The allegations led to a Coast Guard inspection and a criminal investigation. Under the terms of the proposed plea agreement, Eagle Ship Management will pay a criminal fine of $1,750,000, and serve a four-year term of probation subject to the terms of an environmental compliance program. 

Kirill Kompaniets, the vessel’s Chief Engineer, was previously sentenced to a year and a day in prison, a $5,000 criminal fine, and six months of supervised release for his role in directing the discharge and obstructing justice. 

On July 7, 2025,  prosecutors filed an Information charging V. Ships Norway, AS, with violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (33 U.S.C Sect. 1908(a)).

V. Ships Norway operated the M/T Swift Winchester. Crew members transferred oily waste on numerous occasions from the vessel’s incinerator waste oil tank into the sewage tank. That oily waste was then discharged directly into the ocean without using mandatory pollution prevention equipment.

The vessel’s Chief Engineer also ordered the crew to clean the Oil Water Separator filters on the ship’s deck. The crew hosed off the filters, allowing the oil and debris to run over the side of the ship into the ocean.

The vessel then entered Port Arthur, Texas with a knowingly falsified Oil Record Book.

The Coast Guard Investigative Service and Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Port Arthur conducted the investigation.

From approximately 2014 through 2021, Mani Erfan, the cofounder and CEO of Unicat Catalyst Technologies LLC, conspired with others, including at least one other Unicat employee, to cause Unicat to submit bids and make sales to customers in Iran, Venezuela, Syria, and Cuba in violation of U.S. economic sanctions. In total, Erfan caused Unicat to make a total of 23 unlawful sales of chemical catalysts used in oil refining and steel production to customers in Iran, Venezuela, and Cuba. Some of the sales were effected through exports of catalysts from the United States and further violated U.S. export control laws. To further the conspiracy, the conspirators made false statements in export documents and financial records about the true identities and locations of Unicat’s customers and falsely assured some Unicat employees that the company’s business with customers subject to U.S. economic sanctions was lawful. Unicat obtained approximately $3.33 million in revenue from its unlawful sales.

Unicat was acquired by private equity firm White Deer Management LLC in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.  In June 2021, Unicat’s new CEO traveled to the United States to begin integrating the company’s operations with another business recently acquired by White Deer.  During the visit, the new CEO discovered that Unicat had a pending transaction with an Iranian customer and immediately cancelled the deal.  Over the following month, White Deer retained counsel to conduct an internal investigation and self-disclosed criminal violations of sanctions and export control laws committed by Unicat to the National Security Division (NSD) under the NSD Enforcement Policy for Business Organizations (NSD Enforcement Policy). Over the ensuing months White Deer and Unicat implemented extensive remedial measures and cooperated with NSD’s investigation, resulting in Erfan’s guilty plea for his role in the conspiracy in August 2024.

On June 16, 2025, the Justice Department announced that, because of White Deer’s timely self-disclosure, extraordinary cooperation, and prompt remediation, White Deer qualified for the benefits of the provisions of the NSD Enforcement Policy that apply to Voluntary Self-Disclosures in Connection with Acquisitions (the NSD M&A Policy) and that NSD and SDTX had declined White Deer’s prosecution.

NSD and SDTX also announced that they had credited to Unicat White Deer’s timely self-disclosure of the misconduct to NSD and that they had entered into a non-prosecution agreement (NPA) to resolve Unicat’s criminal liability. In its NPA Unicat agreed to pay forfeiture totaling $3,325,052.10, representing the proceeds of its violations of U.S. sanctions and export control laws. In parallel resolutions coordinated between the Justice Department, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), and the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) Office of Export Enforcement (OEE), Unicat agreed to pay $3,882,797 to OFAC for its apparent violations of U.S. sanctions laws, and agreed with OEE to pay a penalty of $391,183 for its violation of U.S. export control laws. OFAC agreed to credit Unicat’s payment of forfeiture pursuant to the NPA against the OFAC penalty, and OEE has agreed to credit Unicat’s payment to OFAC against the OEE penalty. In a separate administrative resolution with U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Unicat agreed to pay $1,655,189.57, in underpaid duties, taxes, and fees.

This resolution marked the first time since the creation of the Justice Department’s Mergers and Acquisitions Policy in March 2024 that the Department had declined the prosecution of an acquiror for self-disclosing criminal conduct discovered at an acquired entity.

On April 29, 2025, a court sentenced Tribar Technologies, Inc. (Tribar), to pay a $200,000 fine, complete a five-year term of probation, and implement an environmental compliance plan. The company also will pay $20,000 in restitution to the City of Ann Arbor. Tribar pleaded guilty to negligently violating a pretreatment standard under the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. §§ 1317(d), 1319(c)(1)(A)).

Tribar manufactures automobile parts and presently operates five active plants in southeast Michigan. Plant 5 is a chrome plating facility located in Wixom, Michigan. It uses an electroplating process to apply chrome finishing to plastic automotive parts. Plant 5 generates wastewater that contains chromium compounds, including hexavalent chromium (chromium), a known carcinogen.

On July 23, 2022, Plant 5 accumulated approximately 15,000 gallons of untreated wastewater containing high concentrations of chromium. This wastewater had higher levels of pollutants than the wastewater typically generated from Plant 5 operations. During the week beginning July 25, 2022, Plant 5 employees attempted to treat this wastewater in a holding tank to reduce the amount of chromium before putting it into the Plant 5 wastewater treatment system. By the end of the week, the wastewater still contained high chromium concentrations.

On July 29, 2022, an employee discharged approximately 10,000 gallons of insufficiently treated wastewater from the holding tank into the Plant 5 wastewater treatment system. This discharge activated wastewater treatment system alarms, indicating that the wastewater required further treatment before it could be discharged to the Wixom sanitary sewer system. The employee disabled approximately 460 alarms and discharged the wastewater to the Wixom sanitary sewer system, and ultimately to the Wixom POTW, without completing the treatment necessary to remove chromium from the wastewater, as required by Tribar’s Industrial Pretreatment Program Permit.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division; the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy; and the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted the investigation. 

On April 29, 2025, a court sentenced Dlubak Glass Company (DGC) to pay a $100,000 fine and complete a four-year term of probation. The company pleaded guilty to making a false statement regarding the storage of hazardous waste (18 U.S.C. § 1001(a)(2)).

DGC is in the business of processing and recycling glass products, including CRT (cathode ray tube) glass. Because they contain lead, used CRTs that are transported, stored, or disposed of can be considered a characteristic hazardous waste under RCRA.

DGC operated facilities in several states, including locations in Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma. Pursuant to a Consent Order, DGC agreed to ship all the CRT glass at its Arizona facility offsite for recycling or disposal as hazardous waste. DGC later shipped approximately 4,000 tons of CRT glass from Yuma, Arizona, to its Texas facility, telling regulators that it would recycle the material by incorporating it into commercial products. 

When the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality (TCEQ) inspected DGC’s Texas facility they observed piles of CRT glass onsite. DGC’s plant manager told inspectors that the only CRT glass present at the location was “processed panel glass containing no lead.” However, further investigation determined that DGC had improperly stored CRT glass and made false statements to TCEQ during the inspection.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation.

Between April 2017 and September 2020, Jonathan Soong, a program administrator employed by Universities Space Research Association (USRA) to manage the sale and distribution of certain software under a contract with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, willfully violated export control laws by facilitating the sale and unlicensed export of flight control and optimization software subject to the EAR to a restricted Chinese university on the Commerce Department’s Entity List.  Soong used an intermediary to conceal the unlawful export and later fabricated evidence that he had performed due diligence on the purchaser before making the sale.

Upon discovering Soong’s crimes, USRA self-disclosed the crime to the National Security Division and fully cooperated with the ensuing criminal investigation.  Soong was charged in September 2022 and pleaded guilty in January 2023 to willfully violating export controls, and was subsequently sentenced in April 2023 to serve a term of 20 months’ imprisonment.

On April 23, 2025, the Justice Department announced that, because of USRA’s timely self-disclosure and extraordinary cooperation, USRA would not be charged, despite the criminal wrongdoing committed by Soong, a USRA employee.

On April 22, 2025, a court sentenced J.H. Baxter & Co., Inc., and J.H. Baxter & Co., a California Limited Partnership, collectively, to pay a total of $1.5 million in criminal fines. In addition, both companies were ordered to serve five years of probation. The companies’ president, Georgia Baxter-Krause, was ordered to serve 90 days’ incarceration, followed by one year of supervised release.

The two companies (collectively J.H. Baxter) were responsible for a wood treatment facility in Eugene, Oregon. Both pleaded guilty to charges of illegally treating hazardous waste and knowingly violating the Clean Air Act (CAA) (42 U.S.C. § 6928(d)(2)(A); 42 U.S.C. § 7413(c)(1)). Baxter-Krause, the companies' president, pleaded guilty to two counts of making false statements in violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) (42 U.S.C. § 6928 (d)(3)).

J.H. Baxter used hazardous chemicals to treat and preserve wood at its Eugene facility. The wastewater from the wood preserving processes was hazardous waste. To properly treat wastewater from its wood treatment process, J.H. Baxter operated a wastewater treatment unit to treat and evaporate the waste. For years, however, when the facility accumulated too much water on site, employees transferred this water to a wood treatment retort to “boil it off,” greatly reducing the volume. J.H. Baxter would then remove the waste that remained, label it as hazardous waste, and ship it offsite for disposal.

J.H. Baxter was never issued a RCRA permit to treat its waste in this manner. The facility was also subject to CAA emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants. However, employees were directed to open all vents on the retorts, allowing discharges to the surrounding air.

State inspectors requested information about J.H. Baxter's practice of boiling off hazardous wastewater. On two separate occasions, Baxter-Krause gave false information in response, which included information about the dates the practice took place, and which retorts were used. The investigation determined that Baxter-Krause knew J.H. Baxter maintained detailed daily production logs for each retort.

J.H. Baxter boiled off hazardous process wastewater in its wood treatment retorts on 136 days. Baxter-Krause was also aware that during this time the company used four of its five retorts to boil off wastewater.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division conducted the investigation with assistance from the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and the Oregon State Police.