The Executive
Director, Basel Action Network (BAN), Mr. Jim Puckett, has declared that the
real harm by the owners of Chicago-based Intercon, led by the chief executive
officer, Brian Brundage, reports
NaijaAgroNet.
"The real harm perpetrated by
Brian Brundage and so many others operating in the same way today is the
assault on human health and the environment of poorer communities in Asia where
our toxic e-waste ends up
Reacting
to the recent arrest of Brundage and indictment on a four-count charge of tax
evasion and six counts of fraud, BAN Director said it was not surprising,
because Intercon Solutions
was always a con and never a solution.
"But they fooled a lot of people
and got very rich doing it. After we tracked their containers to China, we
found out from former employees that they never actually did any electronics
recycling at all but just packed and shipped offshore or to local landfills --
a complete fraud,"
he said.
Puckett
pointed out that the arrest and indictment came after over five years since BAN
as an international environmental watchdog organization, first exposed by the activities
of Intercon Solutions and its CEO Brian Brundage.
He
commended the United States Federal agencies, saying it is gratifying to see the wheels
of justice turn at long last, but it must be understood that the true crime of
Intercon was not a financial one.
"The real harm perpetrated by
Brian Brundage and so many others operating in the same way today is the
assault on human health and the environment of poorer communities in Asia where
our toxic e-waste ends up,” he maintained.
NaijaAgroNet gathered
that the government is seeking forfeiture of 10 million dollars and each count
of income tax evasion is punishable by up to five years in prison, while the
wire fraud and mail fraud counts each carrying a maximum sentence of 20 years.
According
BAN chief, Mr. Brundage and his company Intercon was first caught exporting
electronic waste (e-Waste) to Asia in 2011.
BAN, which takes its
name from the Basel Convention -- a UN treaty that controls and prohibits the export
of hazardous electronic wastes from rich to poorer countries-- has been a
relentless watchdog on the issue for the last decade, working to halt the
massive tide of toxic e-wastes to that flow each day to Asia by so-called
"recyclers" in the United States.
In 2009, he said, UN authorities created the e-Stewards Certification to offer an alternative to the weaker
"R2" Certification created by a US EPA led negotiation, which continues
to allow the export of toxic e-wastes to developing countries.
Remmy Nweke/ED, Ops
... Linking agrobiz, sustainable environs, people & technology