Payout Ordered For West Hartford Homeowner In Lead Paint Case

WEST HARTFORD, CT — A five-figure restituti0n penalty to a West Hartford homeowner was included in sentencing conditions handed down in a federal case against a painting contractor.

John H. Durham, United States attorney for the District of Connecticut, and Tyler C. Amon, special agent in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency's Criminal Investigation Division in New England, have announced that Collegiate Entrepreneurs Inc., a Massachusetts-based house painting company, was sentenced last week by U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny in Hartford for violating the Toxic Substances Control Act and subsequently falsifying records.

Court records describe Collegiate Entrepreneurs, of Braintree, MA, as a company that provides house-painting services in Connecticut and other New England states.

Some of the houses painted by Collegiate Entrepreneurs in 2015 contained lead-based paint and for those jobs, the company was subject to the lead-based paint requirements of the Toxic Substances Control Act and the EPA's Renovation, Repair and Painting Rule.

Under the RRP Rule, Collegiate Entrepreneurs was required to ensure that its certified renovators complied with provisions governing training and supervision of painters, post-renovation cleaning, physical presence on-site, and preparation of required records. Durham said the company was also responsible for ensuring that all renovation activities were performed in compliance with RRP Rule work practice standards governing occupant protection, containment of the work area, prohibited and restricted practices, waste from renovations, cleanup of the work area and post-renovation cleaning verification. Collegiate Entrepreneurs "knowingly failed to ensure such compliance by its renovators during the 2015 painting season," he said.

On Oct. 13, 2015, in response to a federal grand jury subpoena, an employee of Collegiate Entrepreneurs produced records for 12 painting jobs in Connecticut that involved lead-based paint, case records show. Included were records that appeared to have been prepared and signed by certified renovators to document that RRP Rule work practice standards and training requirements had been met at each lead paint job, according to case records.

Records for at least 10 of the 12 jobs were false, Durham said.

The signatures of the certified renovators were forged and the records "falsely represented that the jobs were performed in compliance with the RRP Rule," he added.

On Nov. 19, 2019, Collegiate Entrepreneurs pleaded guilty to one count of falsification of records and one count of violating the Toxic Substances Control Act.

Judge Chatigny today ordered Collegiate Entrepreneurs to serve five years of probation and pay a fine of $50,000.

While on probation, Collegiate Entrepreneurs is prohibited from engaging in projects that involve the remediation of lead paint and are subject to the RRP Rule.

Collegiate Entrepreneurs also will pay $30,000 in restitution to a "victim homeowner" in West Hartford, according to the sentencing conditions.