• January 10, 2013
• By Jeremy Carroll

An electronics recycling company and its two top executives were convicted of lying to customers, saying they were recycling hazardous components responsibly while they sent items to developing countries.

Englewood, Colo.-based Executive Recycling and its former CEO Brandon Ritcher, 38, and former vice president of operations Tor Olson, 37, were convicted of several charges, and acquitted of several wire fraud charges.

In total, the company was convicted of nine of the 15 charges it faced. Ritcher was convicted of nine of the 16 charges he faced and Olson was convicted of eight of the 16 charges he faced.

The charges they facing included mail and wire fraud, obstruction and environmental crimes related to the illegal disposal of electric waste.

The convictions came after an 11-day trial and more than two days of jury deliberations. They were indicted in the fall of 2011.

The government alleged the company exported cathode ray tubes to foreign countries, including China. The company exported over 300 containers between 2005 and 2008 and approximately half of those containers contained a total of 100,000 CRTs, prosecutors said.

The exports were happening while the company claimed they were recycling the items domestically and responsibly.

Neither Ritcher's or Olson's attorney could be reached for comment.

The Basel Action Network photographed containers leaving the company's facility and tracked it overseas. The organization supplied the information to both the U.S. EPA and the television program "60 Minutes," which ran a segment on the company, tracking e-waste from the company to China.

"This conviction is very welcome, but sadly, as we speak, there are many hundreds of other fake recyclers out there that are loading up Asian-bound containers full of our old toxic TVs and computers," said Jim Puckett, BAN's executive director, in a statement. "Every day about 100 containers of toxic e-waste arrive in the Port of Hong Kong alone. We hope this conviction sends a very strong message to business and the public that they should only use the most responsible recyclers."

Prosecutor's hailed the convictions as a win against dangerous exports.

"This criminal conviction demonstrates that there are no shortcuts to following U.S. export laws," said Kumar Kibble, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Denver, in a statement. "For years this company also deceived the public by falsely advertising an environmentally friendly U.S. recycling business plan. Instead, it regularly exported obsolete and discarded electronic equipment with toxic materials to third-world countries, and took actions to illegally hide these practices from government officials."

As the world leader in the consumption of electronics, the United States has a responsibility to dispose of them properly, said Jeffrey Martinez, EPA's special agent in charge of criminal enforcement.

"Many of these worn-out electronics are illegally exported to developing countries where people risk their health and the environment to retrieve the valuable materials left in them," he said in a statement. "[The] guilty verdicts demonstrate that the American people will not tolerate the flagrant violation of laws that harm the environment and people of the developing world."

Puckett said it's time for new legislation to be passed to ban the export of electronics to developing countries.

"Executive Recycling was caught this time, but it has been almost impossible for the government to prosecute this kind of very common activity due to a lack of appropriate legislation," he said. "If we can pass the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act in Congress we could put a quick halt to the horrors of criminal waste trafficking."

Sentencing is expected in April. Ritcher and Olson face potential prison time and the company faces possible fines.

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