BALTIMORE, MD – Michel Osei, 48, of Hanover, Maryland, was sentenced on Wednesday for illegal dumping and abandoning over 250,000 scrap tires at an unlicensed facility in Allegany County. The sentencing follows Osei’s October guilty plea to 17 environmental crimes, including unlawful disposal for gain, operating a scrap tire facility without a license, and improper handling of waste.
Judge Jeffery S. Getty of the Circuit Court for Allegany County sentenced Osei to five years of incarceration, suspending all but 45 days, and imposed five years of probation. Osei was also ordered to pay $250,000 in restitution to the Allegany County Commissioners and a $300,000 fine to the Maryland Clean Water Fund, both of which were suspended.
The case, led by the Attorney General’s Environmental and Natural Resources Crimes Unit (ENRCU), Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE), and the State Fire Marshal’s Office, began in 2021 when Osei proposed a scrap tire recycling facility in Allegany County. Osei claimed the project would create jobs and manage large-scale recycling operations, prompting the county to lease him land on favorable terms. However, inspections later revealed that Osei lacked the required licenses, and the site rapidly became a fire hazard with hundreds of thousands of tires left outdoors and improperly stored.
State officials ordered Osei to stop operations multiple times between 2021 and 2022, but he ultimately abandoned the property in September 2022. The cleanup effort remains ongoing, with Allegany County shouldering the costs of addressing the environmental damage.
The illegal handling of scrap tires, which pose significant health and environmental risks, is tightly regulated under Maryland law. MDE oversees the licensing of tire collection and processing facilities to ensure compliance with safety and environmental standards.