Five Arrested for Swindling $80.3 Million in Largest-Ever Bottle Recycling Fraud Scheme

(Photo Credit: Michael Coghlan, Flickr Creative Commons)

Five people from the Recycling Services Alliance (RSA) Corporation in Sacramento County, California, have been arrested in an $80.3 million recycling fraud conspiracy; yesterday, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra announced the arrest and grand jury indictment of these individuals for “defrauding the state’s beverage container recycling program” by creating fraudulent weight tickets for California Redemption Value (CRV) refunds. The five defendants personally benefited from a recycling fraud that cost the California Redemption Value fund $80.3 million, the office of the California Attorney General says.

The owner of RSA and four employees are accused of fraudulently processing out-of-state empty beverage containers for CRV refunds and conspiring to manufacture fraudulent weight tickets to justify state payments and reimbursement claims.

An investigation by the California Department of Justice (CDOJ) Recycling Fraud Team and CalRecycle uncovered an organized effort to generate inaccurate, altered, or falsified weight tickets to increase CRV reimbursement claims from the Beverage Container Recycling Fund. CalRecycle, the organization that provides oversight of California solid waste handling and recycling programs, concluded that RSA’s claims submitted from January 2012 to December 2015, which totaled more than $80 million, were based on fraudulent weight tickets.

“Recycling fraud is a serious crime and CalRecycle will continue to work alongside our law enforcement partners to disrupt these schemes and protect public funds,” CalRecycle Director Scott Smithline says.

The state Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery said it’s the largest ever alleged fraud involving the deposits consumers pay on some beverage containers. The self-funded program has suffered significant financial challenges that have led to the closing of many of the state’s private recycling centers, the New York Times reports.

The next hearing is scheduled for June 5, 2018, in Sacramento County. The California Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting the cases.