POCATELLO, Idaho, August 1, 2024 (ENS) – A million dollar fine was imposed Tuesday on diesel performance parts retailers GDP Tuning LLC and Custom Auto of Rexburg LLC, doing business as Gorilla Performance, and owner Barry Pierce by a federal court in Pocatello. The companies and Pierce had previously pleaded guilty.
Senior U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill for the District of Idaho sentenced Pierce to four months in prison. GDP Tuning and Gorilla Performance were sentenced to five years of probation. All defendants were ordered to jointly pay a $1 million fine.
The charges in the case relate to illegal tampering with monitoring devices required under the Clean Air Act, specifically the on-board diagnostic systems in diesel trucks.
The first part of the tampering process is to physically remove the emissions control devices, known as “deleting” a truck. In part two, computer software is used to reprogram or tune the vehicle’s on-board diagnostic systems to not recognize what has happened; this process is known as “tuning.”
An on-board diagnostic system normally detects any removal or malfunction of a vehicle’s emissions control equipment, recording a diagnostic trouble code and triggering a vehicle’s “check engine” light. If a malfunction is not remedied, a vehicle can, in some circumstances, be forced into “limp mode,” with a max speed of five-miles-per-hour. Tuning bypasses these checks even with the emissions control equipment removed.
According to court documents, from approximately 2016 to 2020, Pierce and GDP Tuning and Gorilla Diesel Performance tuned and deleted hundreds of vehicles at the Gorilla Diesel Performance auto repair shop in Rexburg, Idaho.
Through various distributors, GDP Tuning also sold tens of millions of dollars’ worth of tunes, tuners and equipment around the country, including what GDP Tuning described as “custom tunes.” GDP Tuning knew the tunes were being used to illegally reprogram vehicles.
Pierce told Environmental Protection Agency inspectors in 2018 that his companies sold kits to delete trucks and products to tune them, including tunes and tuners. In response to EPA’s later follow-up, GDP Tuning produced sales data indicating that it sold over 20,000 tuning products for $14 million in revenue from January 1, 2018, through August 7, 2019.
“Despite being warned by EPA that his conduct was illegal, Barry Pierce and his companies continued to flout the law for years, selling millions of dollars of products that defeated emissions controls on diesel trucks,” said Assistant Administrator David Uhlmann, of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “These products resulted in thousands of tons of excess pollutants being emitted into the air, putting our most vulnerable populations at risk. This brazen behavior must stop and EPA will continue to seek jail time for violations until it does.”
EPA law enforcement agents conducted undercover operations to determine the extent of illegal activity at GDP Tuning and Gorilla Diesel Performance. Employees told an uncover agent that the companies routinely “deleted” trucks at the Gorilla Diesel Performance location. Evidence gathered showed that Gorilla Diesel Performance conducted hundreds of deletes and used GDP Tuning products, with at least seven employees conducting deletes or obtaining tunes for the deleted vehicles. Pierce was aware of and directed the conduct.
“Protecting Idaho’s environment and promoting public health are top priorities for my office, and the extreme amount of pollution emitted from illegally modified diesel trucks threatens both of these goals,” said U.S. Attorney Josh Hurwit for the District of Idaho. “We will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to hold accountable anyone who purposefully and illegally pollutes our air.”
“The defendants knowingly and repeatedly flouted Clean Air Act regulations even after being told that this conduct was against the law,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “We are committed to enforcing the law and holding individuals and businesses accountable.”
Featured image: Diesel trucks spew exhaust emissions into the air at a race track in California. California state regulators have approved a ban on the sale of new big rigs and buses that run on diesel by 2036, going beyond the federal government. (Photo courtesy California Air Resources Board)
