
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, May 4, 1995                   TAG: 9505040098
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: MIAMI                                LENGTH: Medium

FREON SMUGGLER PLEADS GUILTY TO CLEAN-AIR VIOLATION

A man charged in a scheme to smuggle a black-market refrigerant pleaded guilty Wednesday and will testify against others accused of illegally importing the gas commonly known as Freon.

Homi N. Patel, 62, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Wilkie Ferguson to all four counts returned by a grand jury in January.

The indictment was the first time the Clean Air Act was used to prosecute trafficking in Freon. Two other cases with smaller seizures have followed, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Watts-FitzGerald.

Patel and Dara Dubash, 42, were charged with two counts of violating the anti-pollution law, one count of smuggling and one count of conspiracy to import 126 tons of Freon from England without notifying the government and evading excise taxes.

The men were alleged to have falsified paperwork to make it appear the gas was headed to Mexico when they intended to sell it on the U.S. black market.

As part of a plea agreement, Patel will testify against others, possibly including Dubash.

Depending on the extent of Patel's cooperation, prosecutors could ask for a more lenient sentence July 26 than the possible two-year term set in sentencing guidelines.

Meanwhile, Ferguson denied motions Wednesday by Dubash's attorney, Milton Hirsch, to dismiss the indictment on the grounds that the Clean Air Act doesn't address Freon importation and that no search warrant was used when the Freon was seized. Dubash faces trial Monday.

Freon, a trademark name of CFC-12, is widely used in refrigeration and air-conditioning units in homes and 140 million cars.

Production of the gas has been banned in most industrialized nations because of evidence it damages the ozone layer that protects the Earth.

Substitutes have been introduced, but production of chlorofluorocarbons continues in India, China, eastern Europe and several developing countries, which under international treaty may continue to produce them until 2005.

Businesses using Freon can stockpile it, but the federal government charges a $5.35-per-pound excise tax on the chemical to discourage that.

The tax has fed a lucrative black market bringing an estimated 20 million pounds of illegally imported Freon into the United States and costing $100 million a year in lost excise taxes, said Kevin Fay, executive director of the Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy.

by CNB