Virginia Coal Mine Owner Gets Prison For False Dust Sampling

The owner of D&H Mining, a Virginia-based company, is going to prison for trying to hide the levels of coal dust his workers were breathing.

Judge James P. Jones of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia at Big Stone Gap sentenced owner Daniel Tucker to three months in federal prison and fined him $80,000 after he pleaded guilty to fraud. Gerald Ball, a company foreman, was given three years of probation and company was also put on one year of probation.

Tucker and Ball engaged in dust sampling fraud efforts to avoid federal health standards aimed ...