KANSAS CITY — The owner of a defunct laboratory in Lenexa has been ordered to pay $544,287 for storing hazardous waste without a license.
U.S. Attorney Stephen McAllister announced Tuesday that 63-year-old Ahmed El-Sherif was found guilty of storing the waste at Beta Chem Laboratory.
Kansas health officials took control of the laboratory in 2013. Environmental Protection Agency agents found numerous containers of hazardous wastes and radiation contamination during a search in January 2014.
During a bench trial, U.S. District Court Judge Julie Robinson found that Beta Chem was a defunct operation by 2012 and hazardous chemicals were being stored rather than performing decommissioning and decontamination at the facility.
El-Sherif was found not guilty of obstructing a federal investigation. He will serve two years of probation.
