CLEVELAND, Ohio – The owner of a Youngstown oil- and gas-drilling company pleaded guilty today to ordering an employee to dump tens of thousands of gallons of fracking waste into a tributary of the Mahoning River.

Benedict Lupo, 63, of Poland, Ohio, could be sentenced up to three years in federal prison and be ordered to pay restitution of more than $3 million, plus fines of up to $1 million for his crimes.

U.S. District Judge Donald Nugent scheduled sentencing for June 16.

There was no plea bargain. Lupo pleaded guilty to the indictment, which charges him with the unpermitted discharge of pollutants under the federal Clean Water Act.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad Beeson said he would seek the maximum penalty of three years in prison for Lupo, plus an as-yet undetermined amount of fines and restitution.

Defense attorney Roger Synenberg said Lupo is extremely ill, and he would ask the judge to take that into consideration when sentencing his client.

U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach and Randall Ashe, special agent in charge of EPA’s criminal enforcement program in Ohio, said Lupo must be held accountable for his crime.

“Those who make it their business to harvest from under Ohio its great natural resources, have a responsibility to the men, women and children who drink its water, live on its land and breathe its air. And they have a duty to follow the law," Dettelbach said.

Ashe said, “As natural gas exploration continues, it must be done in a way that ensures the drilling byproducts are treated and disposed of safely and legally.”

Nugent sentenced Lupo’s former employee, Michael Guesman, 34, of Cortland, to three years probation last week after he pleaded guilty to the same Clean Water Act crime as his boss.

Guesman, a worker at Hardrock Excavating, testified that Lupo ordered him to run a hose from the 20,000-gallon storage tanks to a nearby storm-water drain and dump the polluted waste water, which eventually reached the Mahoning River.

The wastewater was a byproduct of Lupo’s hydraulic fracturing operations — commonly known as “fracking” — consisting of saltwater brine and a slurry of toxic oil-based drilling mud, containing benzene, toluene and other hazardous pollutants.

Guesman said he was afraid of losing his job if he failed to comply with Lupo’s orders.

Guesman lost his job, however, after Hardrock Excavating went out of business, and Lupo fired most of his employees, Beeson said.

Guesman admitted dumping the polluted water into the drain on at least 20 occasions between Nov. 1, 2012, and Jan. 31, 2013.

Guesman said Lupo ordered him to perform the secret dumping under cover of darkness and after all of the other employees had left the facility.

Guesman said Lupo ordered him to lie if questioned about the dumping, and to tell law enforcement officers he had emptied the waste tanks only six times.