Financial Fraud: Nine Former Supervisory Charged For Conspiracy To Defraud An Agency Of The United States Government

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<h2>One Of The Most Senior Level Former Coal Company Officials In Ky Charged For Defrauding Regulators About Black-Lung Causing Risks To Miners<&sol;h2>&NewLine;<p><strong>Nine former supervisory and safety officials charged<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>MADISONVILLE&comma; Ky&period; – United States Attorney Russell M&period; Coleman announced the charging of an additional former supervisor and safety official from Armstrong Coal&comma; in addition to the 8 previous officials charged by a Federal Grand Jury&comma; for conspiracy to defraud an agency of the United States government by deceit&comma; trickery and dishonest means&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Indictment charges that the conspirators sought to deceive federal mine safety regulators as to the daily levels of breathable dust at both the Parkway Mine of Muhlenberg County&comma; KY and Kronos Mine of Ohio County&comma; KY&period; Breathable or &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;respirable” dust is the primary cause of pneumoconiosis or &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Black Lung” in miners&period; The Federal Grand Jury also charges the nine Armstrong Coal officials with making false statements as to results of tests required to be conducted every 60 days to protect certain &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;designated occupations&comma;” that is the dustiest and most dangerous job assignments in a coal mine&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In addition to the previous charges announced in July of 2018&comma; a federal Grand Jury has now indicted Glendal &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Buddy” Hardison&comma; the former manager of all Armstrong Coal western Kentucky mines&period; The Grand Jury charges that Hardison allegedly met with co-Defendant Ron Ivy and an unindicted co-conspirator in 2013&comma; and ordered them to do whatever they had to do to &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;make the pumps come in&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;West Kentucky miners are about action&comma; not just happy talk&comma;” stated U&period;S&period; Attorney Russell Coleman&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;As we showed today&comma; the United States will continue to aggressively go up the chain to hold accountable those who made calculated business decisions that placed our miners at grave risk&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Miners’ safety and health is our top priority&comma;” said David G&period; Zatezalo&comma; Assistant Secretary of the U&period;S&period; Department of Labor’s Mine Safety and Health Administration &lpar;MSHA&rpar;&comma; which conducted the investigation that led to the charges&period; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;If supervisors and safety officials are breaking the law&comma; we’ll do everything we can to ensure that the laws are enforced and miners receive the protections they deserve&period;”<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Grand Jury charges that contrary to regulations&comma; Armstrong officials removed dust testing devices early in the miners’ shifts and placed the devices in less dusty or &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;clean air”&semi; that during a testing period&comma; officials replaced miners who ran the most dust-causing machines with miners who were not wearing the dust testing devices&comma; so that the company would pass the tests&semi; that Armstrong officials fabricated and submitted dust sampling test results on days the mine was shut down or otherwise not in operation&semi; that officials ordered that testing devices be run in &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;clean air&comma;” before and after shifts&comma; to skew the test results toward passing&semi; that a mine superintendent twice mandated to a safety official to take whatever action necessary to ensure that the company passed dust sampling tests&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Armstrong Coal&comma; now bankrupt&comma; is designated by the Indictment as an unindicted co-conspirator&period; Those former Armstrong supervisory and safety officials charged include&colon;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<ul>&NewLine;<li>Charley Barber&comma; age 63&comma; of Madisonville&comma; a former Superintendent of Parkway Mine&semi;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>General &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Buddy” Hardison&comma; age 69&comma; of Belton&comma; the former manager of all of Armstrong Coal western Kentucky mines&semi;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Brian Keith Casebier&comma; age 60&comma; of Earlington&comma; a former Safety Director at Parkway Mine&semi;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Steven Demoss&comma; age 48&comma; of Nortonville&comma; a former Assistant Safety Director at Parkway Mine&semi;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Billie Hearld&comma; age 42&comma; of Russellville&comma; a former Section Foreman at Parkway Mine&semi;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Ron Ivy&comma; age 50&comma; of Manitou&comma; a former Safety Director at Kronos Mine&semi;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>John Ellis Scott&comma; age 62&comma; of South Carrollton&comma; a former employee in the Safety Department at Parkway Mine&semi;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Dwight Fulkerson&comma; age 40&comma; of Drakesboro&comma; a former Section Foreman who performed dust testing at Parkway Mine&semi; and<&sol;li>&NewLine;<li>Jeremy Hackney&comma; age 46&comma; of White Plains&comma; also a former Section Foremen who performed dust testing at Parkway Mine&period;<&sol;li>&NewLine;<&sol;ul>&NewLine;<p>The Kronos Mine remains in operation under different ownership&period; The Parkway Mine is no longer open&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Randy Ream&comma; Corinne Keel and MSHA’s Jason Grover&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>The indictment of a person by a Grand Jury is an accusation only and that person is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty&period;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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