Envirocare owner Khosrow Semnani has spent the past few years defending himself against a flurry of allegations ranging from bribery of state regulators to illegal collusion with government officials. On Friday, Semnani struck back, filing a federal defamation lawsuit against rival Waste Control Specialists.
"We have been amazed at the extent and outrageousness of the flat-out lies," said Envirocare President Charles Judd. "We don't like the idea of going to court, but we have no choice but to maintain our good name and protect our reputation, which they have systematically attempted to destroy."According to the lawsuit, filed Friday in U.S. District Court for Utah, Semnani alleges that WCS made defamatory and disparaging statements about him and Envirocare to undermine Envirocare's efforts to license a radioactive waste dump in Texas. WCS also was trying to have a similar facility licensed that would compete against Envirocare of Texas and Envirocare of Utah.
Among the statements Semnani claims were false:
That Envirocare was engaged in illegal arms trading, diverting radioactive waste to weapons brokers, financing Middle East terrorists and threatening with death anyone who opposed Envirocare.
That Semnani maintained illicit sexual relationships with women regulators for the purpose of obtaining inside regulatory information and to obtain favorable regulatory treatment.
That state environmental regulators "are illegally involved with Semnani up to their eyebrows and that an active cover-up is being carried out at high levels" of state government.
That Envirocare accepts wastes it is not legally permitted to take, including high-level wastes from Kuwait.
That Semnani had obtained control of a state environmental fund and had converted those monies to his own use to purchase real estate in Hawaii.
That Semnani is a bigamist.
The lawsuit alleges the statements were made by WCS officials or representatives to "instill fear, uncertainty and doubt in the minds of Envirocare's customers and regulators concerning the viability of Envirocare." The rumors became so pervasive that Envirocare was on the verge of losing all of its licenses to store radioactive waste, the lawsuit alleges.
"There is not a shred of truth to these statements, and the defendants knew or should have known that there was no factual basis whatsoever for this garbage," Judd said.
Envirocare of Utah's Tooele County dump is the only commercial facility in the nation licensed to accept low-level radioactive waste. The additional dumps proposed for Texas have not been built.
The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages against WCS, its former president Kenneth N. Bingham and a private investigator named Paul M. Byerly, an employee of Southwest Security and Investigations Inc. who was hired by WCS.
"As the lawsuit progresses, we expect to identify other defendants who were involved in this pattern of lies," Judd said.
Officials with WCS could not be reached for comment.