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Chemical company president bound over for trial on 4 felony charges related to Michigan oil spill
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The president of a Michigan chemical company has been bound over for trial on four felony charges related to a in the Flint River.
Rajinder Singh Minhas, 60, from Rochester, has been charged with falsely altering a public record, uttering and publishing a false or altered public record, endangering the public and discharge of 'injurious' substance into public waters.
Minhas was president of when the chemical processing facility in Flint dumped approximately 15,000 gallons of an 'oil chemical mixture' into the Flint River, the Michigan Attorney General's Office .
A 'chemical fingerprinting analysis' traced the pollution back to Lockhart. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced criminal charges against Minhas last December.
He also faces two other misdemeanor charges and nine violations of the state's Liquid Industrial Waste law.
'Serious violations by businesses that endanger the health and well-being of Michigan residents and our environment cannot be tolerated,' . 'I am grateful to the talented prosecutors in my office, the dedicated experts from the Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, Michigan State Police, the Genesee County Sheriff's Office, the Oakland County Sheriff's Office, and detectives of the EGLE and DNR Environmental Investigation Section, who all played a significant role in advancing this case through the judicial process.'
The felony charges carry penalties between two and 14 years in prison. The misdemeanors carry a six-month incarceration and fines.
A trial date has yet to be set.
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