A former Memphis CEO was sentenced to three years in prison this week for violations of the Clean Water Act.
DiAne Gordon was convicted in October for filing made-up water-quality reports to state environment officials in Tennessee and Mississippi. Her company, Environmental Compliance and Testing (ECT), tested stormwater for other companies, mostly concrete companies, to ensure their projects were compliant with the Clean Water Act.
Gordon claimed to gather samples and send them to environmental testing laboratories. Instead, she fabricated the results and even forged documents from some of the labs.
She sent the made-up results to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) to satisfy permits requirements. Gordon would then bill her clients for the sampling and analysis.
Law enforcement and regulators found that Gordon created, submitted, or caused to be submitted at least 405 false lab reports and other forms from her Memphis company since 2017.
In October, Gordon was ordered to pay more than $201,000 in restitution for her actions. That figure rose to more than $222,000 at her sentencing hearing Monday.
Gordon got 26 months in prison on the fraud case. She was sentenced to 10 more months because she engaged in the criminal activity while on probation.
“Today’s sentence appropriately reflects the harm caused by Gordon’s betrayal of her position of trust and her fraud upon her customers, the regulatory authorities, and the citizens of Tennessee and Mississippi,” said Assistant Attorney Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
“Today’s sentence should be a reminder to those who choose to undermine the public’s confidence in our nation’s water quality for their own financial gain will be vigorously prosecuted,” said Special Agent in Charge Charles Carfagno of the Environmental Protection Agency Criminal Investigation Division’s (EPA-CID) Southeast Area Branch.