Asbestos contractor faces felony charges
A Macomb County asbestos abatement firm is due in court Wednesday to face multiple felony charges related to the Detroit Land Bank Authority, the Michigan Attorney General’s Office said Wednesday.
Kevin Woods, owner of BBEK Environmental in Warren, is due to be arraigned in 37th District Court. He is accused of lowballing project costs to avoid paying more money to the state, bribing a contractor to secure work for his company and violating state laws that require post-abatement air monitoring to be done by an independent party.
Woods declined to comment on the charges Tuesday. His attorney Lawrence Scott of the O’Reilly Rancilio law firm did not return a phone call seeking comment.
BBEK was the largest asbes
tos abatement contractor working on Detroit demolitions, according to published reports.
The Attorney General’s Office said Woods was suspended in July 2019 from involvement in any land bank contracts and performing any work for the City of Detroit.
“There is no room for corruption in federally funded demolitions, as alleged in the charges today,” said Christy Goldsmith Romero, Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program. “The law requiring that air quality monitors must be independent from those who remove asbestos and other hazardous materials is critical to protecting the health and safety of Michigan communities.”
The charges against Woods, 50, of Harrison Township, stem from an investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Michigan into the use of Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds for demolitions by the Detroit Land Bank.
During that probe, it was discovered Woods had inappropriately paid Aradondo Haskins to obtain contracts with Haskins’ former employer, Adamo Group, a large demolition contractor in southeast Michigan. Adamo Group performed demolition work for the Detroit Land Bank Authority and hired BBEK as subcontractor for asbestos abatement.
BBEK is accused of being frequently selected for abatement work by Adamo Group due to several bribes from Woods to Haskins, who was charged federally for receiving bribes and rigging bids for another contractor and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery and honest services fraud and has since served a prison sentence.
It also became apparent that Woods, between at least 2015 and 2019, was allegedly violating Michigan statutes requiring abatement contractors to be independent from air monitoring companies used by the abatement contractor. As the allegations were violations of state laws, the Michigan Department of Attorney General became involved.
“While the complexities of this alleged financial crime cannot go unnoticed, I am grateful for the thorough work performed by my prosecutors and those at the Office of the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement. “Our laws on the checks and balances in asbestos removal provide safeguards for the public’s health and anyone who violates those regulations puts our residents in harm’s way.”
Michigan law requires a post-abatement air monitoring check to be performed by a qualified neutral party that is completely independent of the asbestos abatement contractor.
Two companies frequently used by BBEK to perform this task, HC Consulting Services and Green Way Environmental, were both operated by Woods, the Attorney General’s office
alleges.
Much of the air monitoring work done by HC Consulting and Green Way was completed by BBEK employees, and an investigation into the company’s financials indicate Woods profited directly from the operations, by as much as $400,000 since 2015.
Woods also reportedly violated the Asbestos Abatement Contractor’s Licensing Act by falsifying project costs to lower the amount of funds owed to the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs.
He was required under law to submit 1 percent of the project costs to the asbestos abatement fund, but would routinely devalue the project by as much as 50 percent to avoid contributing to the fund. A forensic review of Woods’ submissions over the course of three years, 2015 through 2019, indicate he cheated the state of Michigan out of roughly $26,600 in fees.
Woods is expected to be arraigned today on four counts of false pretenses over $100,000, a 20-year felony; one count of false pretenses between $1,000 and $20,000, a five-year felony; one count of money laundering, a 10-year felony; and one count of bribery of an agent or employee, a one-year misdemeanor.