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The California Department of Justice (“DOJ”) filed a Felony Complaint (“Complaint”) in the Superior Court of the State of California (County of San Bernardino) on April 14th against seven individuals (collectively “Individuals”) for alleged involvement in a fraud scheme to bring ineligible empty beverage containers into the State of California.
The Complaint alleges that ineligible beverage containers were collected from Las Vegas, Nevada, casinos and improperly redeemed through the California Redemption Value (“CRV”) program.
The CRV program is administered by Cal Recycle. This is the State of California’s empty beverage container recycling program. Only material from California is eligible for redemption under CRV. The CRV program provides a five or ten cent return on eligible beverage containers deposited at privately-owned centers.
The individuals are alleged to have both:
- Illegally imported thousands of pounds of beverage containers from out of state for redemption in California
- Filed fraudulent CRV claims for nonexistent empty beverage containers
- Sold previously redeemed empty beverage containers back into the marketplace to be re-redeemed
The charges being pursued by DOJ include:
- Conspiracy
- Grand theft
- Recycling fraud
A copy of the Complaint can be downloaded here.
