An AP Story dtaed 4/8/04 reports:
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The former head of the federal Superfund environmental cleanup program was indicted on charges she concocted an elaborate scheme to defraud a client who had hired her consulting firm to clean up a contaminated site.Here is the EPA press release dated Feb. 18, 1982 that begins:Rita Marie Lavelle, 57, who served as an assistant administrator in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency during the Reagan administration, was charged Wednesday with wire fraud and making false statements to federal agents. Robert Cole, 67, also was indicted for wire fraud. * * *
Lavelle was previously convicted of perjury for lying in testimony to Congress in December 1982. She was fired two months after the testimony in a scandal that also forced the resignation of the agency's chief.
Prosecutors in that case said Lavelle lied when she told Congress she did not know her former employer, Aerojet-General Corp., was involved in a toxic waste enforcement case. She was sentenced to six months in prison and fined $10,000.
President Reagan today announced his intention to nominate Rita M. Lavelle to be assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for solid waste and emergency response.Posted by Marcia Oddi at April 9, 2004 10:12 AMShe will direct the hazardous waste control program and the $1.6 billion "Superfund" program which provides for the emergency cleanup of chemical spills and hazardous waste dumps.
"Rita Lavelle brings over 12 years of professional experience in state government and private industry to the agency" said EPA Administrator Anne M. Gorsuch.