Chevron Plant Worker Guilty of Extortion
An employee who threatened to blow up the Chevron oil refinery in El Segundo if the company refused to pay him as much as $3 million to settle his disability claims was found guilty of extortion Thursday by a federal jury in Los Angeles.
Federal prosecutors said Ronald Denton, 38, who worked at the refinery for 14 years, had been placed on disability leave after complaining of stress stemming from his failure to get a promotion.
While on leave, he told a psychologist he intended to blow up the facility if the firm refused to meet his financial demands, the U.S. attorney’s office said. Denton was arrested after he urged the psychologist to report the threats to Chevron, according to prosecutors.
A search of Denton’s home turned up books on how to manufacture explosives, prosecutors said.
Denton, who remains in custody, is scheduled to be sentenced May 2.
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