Miami man on lam for decade pleads guilty to importing AC refrigerant from China

A Miami businessman who had been a fugitive for 10 years while facing charges of illegally importing air-conditioning refrigerant from China was arrested this spring and admitted to his crime on Monday in federal court.

Jorge G. Murrillo, 69, pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act by importing more than 680,000 pounds of hydrochlorofluorocarbon-22 that was worth about $1.5 million, according to court records. His plan was to sell the refrigerant on the black market for residential use, prosecutors said. HCFC-22 was widely used for airconditioning and heatpump systems but was being restricted for environmental reasons.

Murrillo, who had been living for a decade outside the country before his arrest in late May, faces up to five years in prison at his Sept. 20 sentencing in Miami federal court before U.S. District Judge Donald Graham.

The Clean Air Act regulates air pollutants, including ozone-depleting greenhouse gases such as HCFC-22, which are now being phased out. Under an international treaty to reduce consumption, the United States issued limited allowances for the production and importation of HCFC-22. To legally import the compound-gas coolant, a person or company had to obtain an “unexpended consumption allowance” from the Environmental Protection Agency.

A decade-old indictment alleges that Murrillo and his Miami Beach company, JP Money Inc., did not have permission from the federal government when the businessman imported HCFC-22 from China to South Florida in 2007.

According to court records, Murrillo and a coconspirator negotiated with a Chinese manufacturer and bought large quantities of HCFC-22, importing the refrigerant through South Florida ports. At no point were Murrillo and his company allowed to import HCFC-22 from China, according to federal prosecutor Thomas Watts-Fitzgerald.

Murrillo’s co-defendant, Norberto Guada, pleaded guilty in 2012 to illegally importing HCFC-22, and he served six months in prison and another six months of home confinement, court records show.