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A central figure in a New York asbestos scam has agreed to cooperate with federal prosecutors in making a case against an asbestos removal firm and five other workers.

According to The Syracuse Post-Standard, Frank Onoff, who oversaw asbestos removal for Paragon Environmental Construction, pleaded guilty in federal court to being part of a decade-long scheme involving Paragon and Certified Enviromental Services, which provided air testing during asbestos removal projects.

The Certified Environmental Services lab reports were doctored to indicate the asbestos had been properly removed, when in fact it was left intact or scattered about, the newspaper reported. The two companies misled families and business to think that asbestos had been removed from their properties when cancer-causing material was still present. Among the dozens of buildings caught up in the scam were the Alpha Chi Omega sorority house at Syracuse University and the Roxboro Road Elementary School in North Syracuse.

Paragon and another one of its supervisors previously pleaded guility to felonies in federal court for violation of the federal Clean Air Act for illegally removing asbestos and using false lab reports. The company was fined $160,000.

Onoff, who was indicted last May along with Certified Environmetnal Systems and six of its employees, pleaded guility to participating in a conspiracy with Certified Environmental Services to defraud the federal government, violate the Clean Air Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act and commit mail fraud. Onoff is to be sentenced March 12 and faces a maximum of five years in jail and a $250,000 fine.