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Investigations

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Long Beach Man Receives $25,000 Fine & Two-Year Jail Term for Hazmat Dumping

Gary Barken, president of Barken’s Hard Chrome, Inc., in Long Beach, CA, was ordered by a U.S. District Court judge in Los Angeles to pay a $25,000 fine and serve two years in Federal prison for illegally transporting and dumping hazardous wastes. Barken’s Hard Chrome is a chrome-plating and metal-finishing firm and uses chemicals such as chromic acid and cadmium cyanide in its work. Barken was found guilty by a jury last March of transporting 40 drums of corrosive chemical waste in a rented truck and dumping it in the desert in Riverside County, CA. This case was investigated jointly by OIG and the FBI.