Managers of five US companies face fines upto $ 3.75 million each and imprisonment upto 75 years for shipping toxic waste to Australia, Bangladesh and Pakistan in violation of US waste exports law.

Three companies from southern USA -- Gaston Copper Recycling Corp, Stoller Chemical Co and Hy-Tex Marketing -- exported in all about 1.4 tonnes of cadimum- and lead-contaminated dust mixed with fertiliser, without informing the US Environmental Protection Agency. The US justice department indicted all three companies as well as Southwire Corp, Gaston Copper's parent company. The corporations themselves face fines upto $ 500,000. The fifth company is Shankman Laboratories, headed by Tariq Ahmad of California.

The shipment sent to Australia has been impounded, but Bangladesh has been left holding the baby, as it does not have an impoundment law against imported wastes.