NorthJersey.com: Hundreds scammed by tank removal company

NorthJersey.com: Hundreds scammed by tank removal company: "Hundreds scammed by tank removal company
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Last updated: Tuesday April 7, 2009, 5:15 PM
BY JAMES M. O'NEILL
NorthJersey.com
STAFF WRITER
2 Comments Hundreds of people in North Jersey were scammed by a storage tank removal company that faked tests on underground oil tanks to generate business, state Attorney General Anne Milgram announced Tuesday.
The clients, typically homeowners, were cheated out of tens of thousands of dollars when the company falsified test results – in some cases adding oil to soil samples — to make it look like tanks were leaking.
Albert Taylor, who ran the Lincoln Park company, was indicted Monday on two counts of racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering, and two counts of theft by deception. Taylor, 48, who now lives in Rocky Mount, Va., will be arraigned at a later date.
“We charge that this defendant systematically defrauded clients by falsifying test results to generate business,” Milgram said in a statement. “This defendant preyed on the fears of customers who were worried about the potential liability posed by a leaking underground tank.”
The customers were in Bergen, Passaic and Morris counties as well as Central Jersey and even into New York State and Maryland, officials said.
Taylor’s tank testing company did business under a variety of names, including Tank Automation, Tank Tek, IDC Tank, All Tank Services, Tank Environmental Service and Computek Services LLC, according to the Attorney General’s office. The company no longer operates in New Jersey, officials said.
The alleged fraud took place between January of 2006 and January of 2008. Taylor’s company charged clients, typically ho"