Explo Officials Get Jail Time, Ordered to Pay Millions

5 high ranking Explo Systems officials were sentenced to years in jail and to pay millions of dollars in restitution for their part in the Camp Minden explosion six years ago.

Explo co-owner David Smith was sentenced to 55 months in prison and ordered to pay 34 million dollars in restitution. Vice President William Wright was sentenced to 41 months and ordered to pay 149 thousand dollars. Traffic and inventory control manager Lionell Koons was, sentenced to 41 months and ordered to pay 92 thousand dollars in restitution. Program manager Kenneth Lampkin, sentenced to 45 months in prison and ordered to pay 149 thousand dollars in restitution. And Engineering and environmental control director Charles Ferris Callihan was sentenced to 24 months, placed on supervised released for a year after he gets out of prison and ordered to pay 207 thousand dollars in restitution.

US Attorney David Joseph said during the proceedings that Camp Minden was the largest illegal dumping ground for military explosives in US history and “I want to thank our federal and state law enforcement partners for their commitment to protecting Louisiana’s citizens and environment. Those who endanger the safety of our community to satisfy their own greed will be held accountable.”

All the guilty parties admitted to submitting false paper work to the Army and ordering low-level employees to cover up improper storage practices for the more than 15 million pounds of explosives that were stored at Camp Minden.

Another one of the owners of the company, David Fincher, died just days before he could plead guilty or stand trial for his alleged part in the Camp Minden fiasco. His cause of death was never reported.