Workplace-Safety -- No Ho Ho Ho

One of the worst workplace-safety violations in modern Houston history.

Eric Ho, a naturalized citizen, bought the defunct Alief General Hospital and Professional Building which needed $400,000 worth of asbestos
abatement to bring it up to code.

Ho paid $700,000, exactly $400,000 less than the owner's asking price.

After receiving a $325,000 bid by a licensed asbestos-abatement
company, Ho decided instead to put Manuel Escobedo in charge. Escobedo's
qualifications? He had lived well into his 60s and had worked at times as a
handyman for Ho. Escobedo had no asbestos training.

Escobedo hired at least 10undocumented Mexican workers, paying them in cash.

They were not given training nor even told that the material they were removing was asbestos that is known to cause cancer.

They were given paper masks, raincoats and putty knives, and they worked 12-hour days.

A city inspector responded to a complaint that Ho was renovating
without a permit in early February 1998, and ordered the work stopped.

Ho obtained a bid from another licensed asbestos-removal company in
less than two weeks. It was $160,000.

Instead of hiring the company immediately, Ho re-hired the Mexican
workers and ordered them to work at night to avoid detection by city
authorities.

Ho judged the work to be completed March 10, after paying bonuses
to the workers to speed up. The next day he instructed a contractor hired to do
the renovation to hose down the interior by hooking up to an outside water
line.

The unmarked line turned out to be a pressurized gas line, and the
explosion burned the contractor and three workers, and blew a hole in the wall of the hospital.

One day later, Ho called the workers to his office and made a final $1,000 payment to each after having them sign wage releases. He paid another
$100 each for them to sign papers in English releasing him from liability for
the explosion. The liability releases were read to the workers in Spanish.

Ho was indicted and convicted of several criminal counts.