Defendant gets ‘break’ in Arcelor theft

WEST CHESTER » One of the men who authorities say stole almost $1 million in nickel from the Arcelor-Mittal steel company in Coatesville told a Common Pleas judge Thursday that the material appeared to be nothing more than waste, not anything the company would value or miss.

“It just looks like little rocks,” Aaron L. Anderson said as he entered guilty pleas to criminal offenses associated with the scheme that netted several of them thousands of dollars in payments from a scrap-metal dealer. “It doesn’t even look like something valuable. We just thought that it would be okay.”

The thefts of the lustrous metal, used in the steelmaking process, “has been going on for years,” Anderson told Judge Ann Marie Wheatcraft, who is overseeing the cases of the men who were arrested in 2016 for the scheme. “You could just scoop it up and take it to scrap yards” without thinking twice, he said. When a co-worked started bragging about how much money he as getting for carrying pails of the metal out of the plant, Anderson said he got involved.

But Wheatcraft told him he had broken the first rule

of thinking about his wallet instead of his reputation. “There is no such thing as free money,” she said in imposing a sentence of probation on Anderson, who earned a break from a possible prison term by cooperating with authorities when he was initially confronted with his theft. “You’re figuring that out the hard way.”

Anderson, 36, of Coatesville, pleaded guilty to one count of theft by unlawful taking graded as a third-degree felony and one count of criminal conspiracy. He was sentenced to 90 days of electronic home confinement, and 10 years of probation. As part of the plea agreement negotiated between Assistant District

Attorney Chad Maloney, who is handling all the cases, and attorney Amato T. Sanita of Philadelphia, representing Anderson, he will also be responsible for paying back a share of the $935,000 investigators say the company lost through the nickel thefts.

“You owe a tremendous amount of money,” Wheatcraft told Anderson, a bulky, baldheaded, bearded man wearing a dark business suit. “And you are going to have to take (paying it back) seriously. It’s kind of like a car payment. But you have to make them for a long time.”

According to Maloney, a standard sentence for a defendant like Anderson with no criminal record would have called for a minimum prison term of three months, and up to a year behind bars. But because Anderson accepted responsibility for his crimes and helped police bring charges against the others involved, he was given “a significant break.

“Mr. Anderson was identified very early on” in the investigation by Chester County Detectives,” Maloney told Wheatcraft. “He immediately cooperated, and led to others being brought to justice.” Part os his plea agreement is that should any of his coconspirators go to trial, he would testify against them.”

Maloney said that the D.A.’s office had approved the plea agreement, and that Arcelor-Mittal officials had been informed of its terms. “The company is supportive of the outcome, based on Mr. Anderson’s cooperation in uncovering the overarching scheme,” he said.

According to Maloney’s recitation of the facts of the case and court documents, including the criminal complaint filed by county Detective Robert J. Balchunis Jr., the investigation into the nickel thefts began in January 2013 when company officials notified police that a manager at the Coatesville plant, formerly

Lukens Steel, had witnessed a contract employee named George Glassco removing nickel briquettes in buckets from the plan with no legitimate reason. Glassco was interviewed by detectives in August 2013 and admitted the thefts, but also identified another employee who helped him, as well as Anderson, who he knew as “Big A.”

The nickel would be taken from the plant, sometimes in box trucks overloaded with the metal, and sold to PASCO Inc., a metal-recycling company in Philadelphia, which paid the employees a fraction of the value of the nickel. All together, they stole an estimated 55 tons of the metal.

Anderson led the police to others, including two brothers who had taught him the ropes of the scheme. Altogether eight men were ultimately charged in December 2016. Glassco has pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing, while the others are awaiting trial. They include brothers Dane K. Douglas and Corey Douglas, Richard R. Cooper, and Maurice Dennis.

Some of the suspects worked for Arcelor-Mittal while some worked for Vandenburg, a company that supplies maintenance services to the Arcelor-Mittal factory. Others were employed by Allied Barton, a company which supplied security services at the factory.

When asking about his family, Wheatcraft learned that Anderson had a 14-year-old daughter. Had he told her about the criminal case against him? No, he had not, he said.

“You understand she may very well find out about this. It may be a life lesson for her. What do you think you will tell her about this?” the judge commented.

“That her father did something wrong, and he paid a price for it,” he answered.

“You owe a tremendous amount of money. And you are going to have to take (paying it back) seriously. It’s kind of like a car payment. But you have to make them for a long time.” — Judge Ann Marie Wheatcraft