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A lawsuit filed against LSM Auto Parts and Recycling alleges the company improperly disposed of petroleum and other toxic automobile fluids.
A lawsuit filed against LSM Auto Parts and Recycling alleges the company improperly disposed of petroleum and other toxic automobile fluids.
Relatives of a former Gambino family crime boss find themselves in their own trouble with the law.
State Attorney General Letitia James’ office on Tuesday announced a lawsuit against the owners and operators of LSM Auto Parts and Recycling on Liberty Avenue in Jamaica. The company operates on the salvage yard owned by the BGN Real Estate firm, which is registered to Victoria Gotti, daughter of longtime mob boss John Gotti.
The suit alleges LSM violated state laws and regulations pertaining to disposal of gasoline and other automobile fluids following the dismantling of a motor vehicle, remediation efforts after a spill and petroleum storage procedure.
LSM is also alleged to have poured concrete over the contaminated areas before the state Department of Environmental Conservation could perform a proper investigation and cleaning.
“If you make a mess, you clean it up,” James said in a statement. “Most learn this old adage before they speak their first words, but it’s clear LSM never did.”
The company’s waste storage malpractice dates back to at least 2014, when the city Department of Environmental Protection Hazardous Materials first noted petroleum spills on the site to the state DEC spill hotline.
New York State law requires all petroleum spills to be reported to the DEC, and lists the violator as the responsible party for cleaning up any discharge.
Upon trips to the site in 2017, the DEC uncovered more uncontained petroleum puddles and a pair of unregistered 250-gallon totes being used as petroleum storage banks.
DEC regulations require any such storage container to be made of steel. Representatives from the agency found the containers possessed structural inadequacies and did not meet the steel standard.
LSM closed its only DEC-registered petroleum storage tank in December 2015.
In 2018, the city Department of Environmental Protection received complaints of petroleum from the site spreading onto the street. Later that year, DEC environmental officers and NYPD officials observed waste oil and antifreeze discharge dripping down the curb line and into a nearby storm drain.
“The daily operations at LSM Auto Parts and its unremedied oil spills led to contaminated runoff that threatens the environment and the community,” DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said in a statement.
A DEC attorney sent a letter requesting a comprehensive action plan for cleaning the premises to LSM in October 2019. It was met with no response, but following a DEC visit to the area in June 2021, Victoria Gotti called the agency to admit its condition was subpar and that it may need repaving. DEC officials told her to wait until a proper inspection could be made before engaging in any coverage, but unauthorized concrete pouring allegedly was both reported to the agency and observed by officials in December 2021.
“LSM will not get away with knowingly jeopardizing the health and safety of our communities,” James said. “It’s time they clean up the dangerous mess they have made.”
With the suit, James and the DEC seek to ensure the operators of LSM, one of whom the New York Post reports to be Victoria Gotti’s son, Carmine Gotti Agnello Jr., submits a work plan for contamination remediation, in addition to financial penalties.
LSM could not be reached for comment.
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