A developer from New York faces probation and $15,000 in fines for violating asbestos exposure laws.

U.S. District Judge Frank Geraci levied the penalties after accepting a guilty plea from Anastasios “Taso” K., according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of New York.

Taso pled guilty to violation of asbestos exposure laws within the federal Clean Air Act that govern the proper removal and disturbance of asbestos.

Taso’s probation will consist of 150 hours of community service. The plea agreement also provides that Taso will pay $250 in wages to the workers involved in the asbestos-related activity.

The activity in question occurred at a Rochester, N.Y. warehouse, built in 1930 and now co-owned by Taso. The U.S. attorney’s press release notes that today there are residential properties on two sides of the warehouse and a school bus stop right outside its main gate.

Improper Abatement Violates Asbestos Exposure Laws

According to the press release, an inspector visited the site in December 2011, acting on a complaint. At the site, the inspector found white fibrous material in and around a dumpster next to a loading dock. Later lab testing confirmed that the material contained high levels of asbestos that was “friable,” or easily crumbled.

While there, the inspector also witnessed persons, including one teenager, were working in the dumpster without protective equipment. The inspector also noted there were no warning signs posted, as required by asbestos exposure laws.

After the inspector had contacted the workers, Taso ordered them not to speak to the inspector and to lock up the facility and leave.

Federal and state enforcement agents then came back with a search warrant. Inside the warehouse, they found dozens of bags of dry asbestos in the area by the loading dock, plus other evidence of unlawful attempts at asbestos abatement. All samples of those materials tested positive for high levels of asbestos.

Workers interviewed in the investigation said that Taso had employed them at other job sites before. They said Taso offered to pay them in cash to remove the asbestos from the dumpster, supposedly because the container company refused to remove the dumpster while it contained asbestos.

The teenager was reported to be a 16-year-old boy working at the site with his mother. Taso allegedly picked them up and drove them to the Rochester work site to work on the asbestos.

The workers say Taso gave them nothing more than dust masks to wear while working with the asbestos. They were provided with no proper masks or suits, and Taso did not provide them training or certification in proper asbestos abatement techniques, they reported.

The press release notes that asbestos was designated a “hazardous air pollutant” by the EPA in 1971. Asbestos exposure can lead to mesothelioma, a type of cancer that affects the lining inside the chest. It can also cause asbestos lung cancer, as well as cancers of the colon, stomach, esophagus, and other organs.

According to a Congressional finding, medical science has not established any amount of asbestos exposure that is small enough to be considered “safe.”