Summary

On February 26, both Ngu David Tran and his company TransDesign, Incorporated, of Forest Park, Georgia, were sentenced in U.S. District Court, Atlanta, Georgia with the illegal transportation of hazardous materials. Mr. Tran was sentenced to serve five years’ probation, and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service. His company was sentenced to serve five years probation, fined $119,000, assessed an administrative penalty by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in the amount of $137,500, and ordered to pay an additional assessment of $1,200. The sentence resulted from Mr. Tran and TransDesign’s guilty plea on October 30, 2008, to three counts of illegal transportation of hazardous materials in air commerce. On August 20, 2008, Mr. Tran and his company were indicted for shipping chemicals via United Parcel Service and Federal Express on multiple occasions without declaring them as hazardous materials. His activities were discovered when a shipment leaked onboard an aircraft causing the entire aircraft to be unloaded and cleaned. These chemicals were seized by the FAA and turned over to DOT/OIG as evidence.

Our investigation was conducted jointly with the FAA’s Southern Region and Hazardous Materials & Dangerous Goods Division.