Coal company executive and lawyer convicted of bribing Alabama lawmaker [Updated]

Enlarge / Coking coal. (credit: Luke Sharrett/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

On Monday, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the conviction of a coal company executive and a lawyer on charges related to bribing an Alabama state lawmaker.

The two men-David Roberson, vice president of Government and Regulatory Affairs for coal firm Drummond Company, and Joel Gilbert, a partner at law firm Balch & Bingham-paid Alabama State Representative Oliver Robinson $360,000 to oppose an environmental clean-up program near Robinson's district.

In 2013, Drummond Company, a company that mines and processes coal, was alerted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that one of its subsidiaries could possibly be on the hook to help pay for the cleanup of an EPA-designated Superfund site north of Birmingham, Alabama. The site had tested positive for "elevated levels of arsenic, lead, and benzo(a)pyrene," according to the Justice Department.

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