Former warehouse manager sentenced for illegal transportation of hazardous materials

A former warehouse manager of an Ohio-based manufacturer and distributor of smoking accessories and “alternative lifestyle products” has been sentenced for illegally transporting hazardous material, according to federal court documents. The company was fined earlier this year.

Charles Kaye, a former warehouse manager for the Perrysburg, Ohio-based Glow Industries, was sentenced on June 6 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. Judge Stephen Wilson sentenced Kaye to two years of probation and ordered him to pay a $3,000 fine for not marking and labeling hazardous materials.

From an unknown date until August 2012, Glow Industries and Kaye knowingly transported butane without the labeling required by federal law at a warehouse located in Riverside, Calif., the indictment said.

Glow received butane cartridges from suppliers and then sold those cartridges to various businesses within the United States, according to the indictment. The boxes received from suppliers were marked in compliance with hazardous material laws.

Under the direction of Kaye, Glow employees removed the cartridges from the original box with hazmat markings and placed them in a different box with no markings. By doing so, Glow avoided paying for permits and additional costs associated with hazmat transportation.

The federal indictment lists 15 different occasions when Glow shipped unmarked boxes to customers. In August 2012, Kaye sent a letter to a special agent of the Federal Aviation Administration stating that a Glow employee had “inadvertently” shipped cases of butane without declaring it as hazardous material, court documents stated.

In addition to counts related to the unlabeled shipments, Glow was charged with one count of failing to provide the required hazardous materials training to its hazmat employees.

According to a U.S. Department of Transportation news release, Glow’s illegal operations were exposed after UPS Inc., examined a shipment at an Anchorage, Alaska, airport. A box had been damaged, which prompted it to be inspected. UPS employees discovered that the inside of the box had the appropriate markings whereas the exterior of the box did not. Glow employees had disassembled boxes from original shipments to its facility and essentially turned them inside out for delivery to customers without the labels.

Kaye and Glow Industries were indicted in September 2017. Kaye pleaded guilty to one count of transporting hazardous materials without marking and labeling on Jan. 22. One count of conspiracy and one count of knowingly tampering with package containing hazardous materials were dropped.

Glow Industries pleaded guilty in October 2017 to one count of knowingly tampering with package containing hazardous materials. Three counts were dismissed, including a second tampering charge, conspiracy and materials training to hazardous materials employee. The company was fined $250,000 and sentenced to five years of probation.

According to its website, Glow Industries was established in 1978 as a chain of retail stores in Toledo, Ohio. Distribution of products began in 1991, which includes an inventory of more than 5,000 products such as vaporizers, “detox” beverages, incense, hookahs and adult toys.