Word: nelsons
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...Department launched a major investigation into bribery at the MSHA's field office in Logan County. The probe has produced some shocking tales. Former coal-company employee Larry Vannatter says he provided an abundance of favors to inspectors when he worked for Logan County mine operator and consultant Phil Nelson. Vannatter says he was told to make sure that federal and state inspectors got whatever they desired: cash, groceries, rifles, tires, even a donation to a local church. The role was a curious one for Vannatter, whose father had been killed in a mining accident three months before Vannatter...
Federal mine inspector Jack (Black Jack) Massey says his payoffs began when he found a crisp $100 bill under his jacket in the backseat of his car after inspecting one of Nelson's mines. During the next several years, Massey says, Nelson gave him more than $8,000 in cash as well as knives, hams, turkeys and | season tickets to University of West Virginia football games. Massey's job was to inspect for electrical hazards, but instead of citing the mine for violations, he repaired problems and was paid by the mining company for the work. In February 1990 federal...
Federal inspector Tommy Hinchman had a different job: to review mine ventilation plans. Hinchman says Nelson paid him for help in drafting those plans, the same ones that Hinchman would later approve as an inspector. Says Nelson: "All Tommy Hinchman's done -- if he's guilty of anything -- was move me to the front of the line to get me through something. Common courtesy." In July Hinchman pleaded guilty to accepting a gratuity from Nelson...
...Nelson, who has not been charged with any criminal wrongdoing, says Vannatter's allegations are grossly exaggerated. It was either pay up or be shut down by petty violations, he claims. "Do you think I created the system and I'm the only one that done it? No, buddy, the system created me. I am a victim; so is everybody else in this state who tries to do business," says Nelson, who insists he would never put the miners at risk. "I would rather lose everything I've got right now than cost a man his life...
...February 1990, a 39-year-old miner named Millard David Frye was killed in a Logan County mine. Corruption did not cause his death, but just days earlier inspector Massey had been recorded telling the mine's consultant, Phil Nelson, that Massey might be able to influence the inspection of the mine. As for other mines, Massey suggested he "could cut down on where the inspectors...