Emissions Tampering Costs Auto Parts Firm $10M in Fines
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The owner of a North Carolina automotive parts company has pleaded guilty and agreed to pay $10 million in criminal fines and civil penalties for manufacturing, selling and installing emissions defeat devices on motor vehicles.
On Sept. 10, Rudy’s Performance Parts Inc. and its owner, Aaron Rudolf, were sentenced in federal court in Washington, D.C., for conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act. U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden ordered Rudy’s to pay a $2.4 million criminal fine and complete three years of organizational probation.
Rudolf, the sole owner and chief executive officer of Rudy’s, had previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act by tampering with monitoring devices on approximately 300 diesel trucks. In April, he was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay a $600,000 criminal fine.
In addition to the criminal penalties, Rudy’s and Rudolf will pay a $7 million civil penalty under a consent decree filed July 29, to settle a 2022 lawsuit filed by the Justice Department on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency. The consent decree, subject to court approval, would prohibit them from making, selling, offering to sell or installing defeat devices, as well as transferring related intellectual property or profiting from defeat devices made by others.
“Those selling defeat devices are willing to pollute the environment so that they can personally profit,” said U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves. “Anyone considering peddling or installing these devices is on notice of the substantial costs of doing so.”
The EPA and U.S. Justice Department announced the Clean Air Act settlement with Rudy’s, which opened in 2008 as a one-person operation and now boasts a 72,000-square-foot facility in Burlington, N.C. Its website features photos of pickup trucks at racetracks, along with images of commercial vehicles and parts.
(Screenshot from the Rudy's Website)
“For too many years, companies like Rudy’s have installed illegal defeat devices to evade the public health protections of the Clean Air Act, to the detriment of communities across America,” said David Uhlmann, assistant administrator for EPA enforcement and compliance assurance. He emphasized EPA “will vigorously pursue criminal and civil penalties until this illegal behavior comes to an end.”
The penalties imposed by EPA and DOJ stem from a 2022 civil complaint in which EPA estimated that the items Rudy’s sold and installed enabled over 1 million vehicles to release excess pollution into the air.
Court documents reveal that Rudy’s engaged in a profitable business selling computerized tuners that tamper with and recalibrate vehicles’ on-board diagnostic systems. Rudy’s initially sold two brands of tuners made by another company. When that company ceased production, Rudy’s conspired with others to produce counterfeit tuners designed to mimic the original brand’s products. From December 2016 to July 2018, Rudy’s manufactured these imitation tuners in-house using a laptop computer it purchased for $850,000.
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“In total, Rudy’s sold approximately 43,900 imitation tuners, generating about $33 million in revenue,” EPA noted.
The civil lawsuit alleges that from at least 2014 through mid-2019, Rudy’s manufactured and sold over 250,000 products designed to remove or disable EPA-mandated emissions controls.
“These products included hardware parts such as plates that block a vehicle’s exhaust gas recirculation system and pipes that replace pollution treatment components in a vehicle’s exhaust system,” EPA said. Rudy’s itself installed defeat devices on about 300 diesel trucks.
“This plea agreement and civil settlement show that we will take strong action to enforce the Clean Air Act and emissions controls requirements for motor vehicles,” said Todd Kim, assistant attorney general in the DOJ’s environment and natural resources division.
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