United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Michael Garcia, Tuesday announced that Peter Ward, formerly a licensed asbestos investigator, was sentenced to 27months in prison in Manhattan federal court for removing asbestos in violation of the Clean Air Act from a police precinct building in Queens and an apartment building in Brooklyn.

Ward pleaded guilty to two felony violations of the Clean Air Act. In pleading guilty, he admitted that in 2001 he had caused asbestos to be removed from a Queens police precinct building located at 168-02 91st Street and a Brooklyn apartment building located at 1120 Brighton Beach Avenue without notifying the United States Environmental Protection Agency in advance, as required by regulations promulgated under the Clean Air Act for asbestos-removal jobs over a certain size.