Recycling center
ST. LOUIS — SA Recycling has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that a group of Illinois companies, their owner and two of SA Recycling’s own employees orchestrated a multi-year scheme that defrauded the company out of millions of dollars.
The complaint names Route 185 Recycling, 185 Recycling, Mid-Illinois Concrete, Ryan Foster, Oscar Ortiz, and Juan Perez as defendants in what SA Recycling describes as a racketeering enterprise that intentionally manipulated deliveries to inflate payments, according to the Sept. 9 case filed in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri.
According to the complaint, the alleged scheme involved mixing non-recyclable concrete washout with legitimate scrap metal loads delivered by 185 Recycling to SA Recycling’s McKinley Facility in St. Louis.
The facility pays for scrap based on weight, and the addition of concrete artificially increased that weight, resulting in overpayments.
SA Recycling contends that Foster, identified as the owner of 185 Recycling, spearheaded the plan, instructing drivers to conceal tons of concrete washout within trailers of recyclable material.
The company further alleges that two of its own employees, inspector Oscar Ortiz and crane operator Juan Perez, were bribed to ignore the presence of non-recyclables and to coordinate deliveries so the fraud would not be discovered.
The complaint details that the scheme began as early as 2021 and continued until at least August 2025, when a confidential informant disclosed the conspiracy to SA Recycling.
The informant revealed that 185 Recycling employees layered concrete washout into truckloads after picking it up from ready-mix concrete plants, including Vandalia Ready Mix and Greenville Ready Mix, both owned by Mid-Illinois Concrete.
These materials were then sprinkled into loads of scrap metal before delivery to the McKinley Facility.
Foster allegedly ensured that the trucks entered the facility only during the shifts of Ortiz and Perez, who were paid to avoid reporting the excess non-recyclable content and, in Perez’s case, to sweep out trailers with fencing material to hide evidence.
The company states that the average truckload weighed about 15 tons, with two to four tons consisting of unusable concrete washout.
Over the last 12 months alone, 185 Recycling delivered approximately 20,000 tons of material, which SA Recycling paid for at an average price of $241 per ton.
The additional disposal cost of $35 per ton for the unusable concrete compounded the financial damage.
The company says the fraud not only forced it to overpay, but also saddled it with added shipping and processing costs when contaminated loads had to be re-sorted and, in some cases, resulted in deductions from its own customers.
The suit also alleges that 185 Recycling drivers were paid an extra $40 per fraudulent load and that Ortiz and Perez received $200 every other week for their participation.
The complaint accuses Mid-Illinois Concrete of knowingly providing the concrete washout used in the scheme.
SA Recycling notes that this was not Foster’s first such operation, alleging he and 185 Recycling had previously engaged in a similar fraudulent practice against another recycling company until they were discovered and cut off.
SA Recycling claims the defendants collectively formed what it calls the “185 Recycling Enterprise,” a racketeering association operating for more than four years with the shared purpose of inflating weights to secure overpayments.
The complaint asserts violations under federal racketeering statutes and wire fraud laws, citing numerous fraudulent interstate ACH payments made as a result of the scheme.
SA Recycling is seeking compensatory damages. It is being represented by Arthur D. Gregg and Gabriel G. Green of Buchalter in St. Louis and Los Angeles.
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri case number: 4:25-cv-01349
