WASHINGTON (Michigan News Source) – Diesel Ops LLC and Orion Diesel LLC of Oakland County have been fined $10 million for selling aftermarket automobile parts meant to cheat automobile emissions controls.
These companies are both owned by Nicholas Piccolo of Waterford Township and were both fined in August in Detroit Federal Court as the national U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) continued to pursue companies selling illicit diesel emissions “defeat devices.”
“The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has made it a priority to stop the manufacture, sale and installation of defeat devices, because they result in illegal and harmful emissions that continue over the life of the vehicle,” said Acting Assistant Administrator Larry Starfield for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “This case shows that EPA and our law enforcement partners will hold responsible those who illegally profit from defeat devices.”
According to the court documents, the court also granted nearly $1.5 million in fines for failing to provide information and fraudulent transfers in violation of the Federal Debt Collection Procedures Act against the owner of the two companies Nicholas Piccolo. The court entered a permanent injunction against future sales of defeat devices against all of the defendants.
Ford Powerstroke and Dodge Cummins engines were the two main types that Diesel Ops and Orion Diesel sold “delete kits” and software for the purpose of masking emissions.
The hardware and software also helped boost the diesel powered vehicle performance and mileage while also increasing air pollutant emissions.
The EPA has made a greater effort to catch companies who cheat the emissions levels after the Volkswagen scandal in 2015 which involved similar cheating of emissions tests.
And in 2018, IAV GmbH (IAV), a German company that engineers and designs automotive systems, agreed to plead guilty to one criminal felony count and pay a $35 million criminal fine as a result of the company’s role in a long-running scheme for Volkswagen AG (VW) to sell diesel vehicles in the United States by using a defeat device to cheat on U.S. vehicle emissions tests required by federal law.
MORE NEWS: Grand Rapids Launches Task Force to Address Growing Concerns Over Kent County Deer Population
The EPA says it resolved 40 diesel tampering cases in 2021 alone.
Leave a Comment
COMMENTS POLICY: We have no tolerance for messages of violence, racism, vulgarity, obscenity or other such discourteous behavior. Thank you for contributing to a respectful and useful online dialogue.