President of Environmental Company Sentenced to More Than Six and a Half Years in Prison for Leaving Asbestos at Suburban Chicago Demolition Site
CHICAGO / Wednesday, September 16, 2026 — A federal judge has sentenced the president of an environmental services company to more than six and a half years in federal prison for knowingly leaving asbestos at a suburban Chicago demolition site after accepting full payment for the purported remediation.
CARL FIORAVANTI is the president of Alliance Environmental Control, Inc., a Lansing, Ill.-based company that performs asbestos removal services. In 2023, Alliance was hired to remove asbestos-containing materials ahead of a planned demolition of a largely abandoned medical campus in Waukegan, Ill. The owner of the site agreed to pay Alliance nearly $1.8 million to remove the asbestos-containing materials in accordance with laws designed to prevent people from breathing or ingesting airborne asbestos fibers, which have been shown to cause lung cancer and other serious illnesses. During the purported remediation, Fioravanti fabricated air-sampling clearance reports that fraudulently stated that the site had been scientifically tested and was clear of asbestos. Two months after Fioravanti certified the project as fully remediated, the property owner learned that Alliance had left enormous amounts of asbestos-containing materials throughout portions of the site.
Substantial amounts of the toxic materials had become commingled with ordinary demolition debris, releasing asbestos into the air and substantially increasing the remediation costs. To date, the owner has spent more than $26 million on large-scale remediation of the property.
In addition to the asbestos-related fraud, Fioravanti also defrauded the IRS and the State of Illinois of more than $2.7 million in combined tax revenues by causing a tax preparer to file false individual and corporate income tax returns that greatly understated the amount of income Alliance and Fioravanti had earned from 2013 to 2022.
Fioravanti, 58, of Lansing, Ill., pleaded guilty earlier this year to federal wire fraud and tax charges. On Sept. 10, 2026, U.S. District Judge Franklin U. Valderrama sentenced Fioravanti to six years and eight months in federal prison.
The sentence was announced by Andrew S. Boutros, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; Allison Landsman, Acting Director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Criminal Investigation Division (EPA CID); Robert J. Kuszynski, Acting Special Agent in Charge of IRS Criminal Investigation in Chicago; Machelle L. Jindra, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Housing and Urban Development, Office of Inspector General (HUD OIG) in Chicago; and Ryan Whalen, Special Agent in Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI. Substantial assistance was provided by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Chapman and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Samuel Cardick.
“Environmental fraud causes substantial damage to the health, safety, and economic security of our communities,” said U.S. Attorney Boutros. “When individuals falsify emissions reports or fabricate safety data, they are trading public welfare for illicit profit. As this case demonstrates, the Chicago U.S. Attorney’s Office will work hard with its law enforcement partners to hold accountable those who commit environmental frauds.”
“By falsely certifying that asbestos at an old hospital site had been properly abated, the defendant ensured that piles of friable asbestos wrongly remaining were cast about during demolition, contaminating the entire site and endangering workers and the community members,” said EPA CID Acting Director Landsman. “Fraud under environmental programs does more than financial harm—it places real humans in danger and poisons communities. This sentencing underscores that there are criminal consequences for those who deliberately cut corners that endangers human health and the environment.”
“Workers trusted that a hidden danger had been removed before they entered that building,” said IRS-CI Acting SAC Kuszynski. “The paperwork said the site was safe, but the physical and financial evidence told another story. Our agents followed the payments and tax records to help show what was concealed, who profited, and the human cost of putting money ahead of people.”
“Carl Fioravanti placed workers, families, and the environment at risk of exposure to asbestos by falsely claiming that enormous amounts of asbestos-containing material had been removed and disposed of when he knew that it had not,” said HUD OIG SAC Jindra. “This was not an oversight or a mistake; it was a deliberate scheme that placed personal financial gain above the safety of others. HUD OIG remains committed to working with the U.S Attorney’s Office and law enforcement partners to hold bad actors accountable and bring to justice those who exploit federal programs and endanger the public for personal gain.”
“This environmental fraud scheme was a purposeful attack on public safety, putting innocent Americans and their health at risk,” said FBI SAC Whalen. “This sentencing confirms that the FBI, along with our law enforcement and prosecutorial partners, are committed to defending our homeland, which includes the very environment that surrounds the communities we serve. Anyone who endangers the health and safety of Chicago’s residents for unlawful profit will be fully held accountable and be brought swiftly to justice.”
Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Illinois
