PORTLAND — Federal workplace safety officials have sued Scarborough-based Downeast Construction Corp., seeking to collect fines for a series of safety violations during a demolition and asbestos removal operation at the embattled Forster Mill complex in Wilton.

U.S. Attorney Thomas Delahanty on Sunday filed into the court’s electronic record system the lawsuit, seeking to enforce $271,979 worth of penalties assessed by the Occupational Hazard and Safety Administration after inspections in 2011.

The lawsuit alleges that Downeast Construction owner Ryan Byther has not paid or contested any of the penalties and seeks a judgment from the court for the cost of the assessed penalties and interest since the inspections.

Federal officials attempted to deliver notifications of the penalties to Byther around their assessment in 2011, according to the lawsuit, but later discovered he was in prison on charges of theft by deception and left the notification of penalties at his residence.

He was sentenced in 2012 to a six-month prison term after being convicted of bilking a York County American Legion post out of $50,000 and using a portion of it to open a bar in Portland.

The Waterville Morning Sentinel reported that Byther’s company was conducting the demolition until July 2011 when workers told federal officials the company was improperly disposing of asbestos from the building.

The EPA inspected the building later that year and worked with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to hire a new contractor to finish removing the asbestos.

The site has been the subject of legal battles in county court with owner Adam Mack, a former state representative for Standish, who filed for personal bankruptcy in December 2014 as the town sought a court order to demolish the building.

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