Diesel performance parts retailers GDP Tuning LLC and Custom Auto of Rexburg LLC, doing business as Gorilla Performance, and owner Barry Pierce were sentenced today in federal court in Pocatello, Idaho. 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 companies and Pierce had previously pleaded guilty.
“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.”
According to court filings, 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.
The charges in the case involved illegal tampering with monitoring devices required under the Clean Air Act, specifically the on-board diagnostic (OBD) 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 OBD to not recognize what has happened; this process is known as “tuning.” An OBD 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.
“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 M. 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.”
“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.”
AutoInformed on
About Ken Zino
Ken Zino, editor and publisher of AutoInformed, is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn.
He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe.
Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped during a downshift and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap.
AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks.
Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.
More Fines for Tampering with Emissions Control Systems
Diesel performance parts retailers GDP Tuning LLC and Custom Auto of Rexburg LLC, doing business as Gorilla Performance, and owner Barry Pierce were sentenced today in federal court in Pocatello, Idaho. 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 companies and Pierce had previously pleaded guilty.
“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.”
According to court filings, 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.
The charges in the case involved illegal tampering with monitoring devices required under the Clean Air Act, specifically the on-board diagnostic (OBD) 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 OBD to not recognize what has happened; this process is known as “tuning.” An OBD 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.
“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 M. 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.”
“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.”
AutoInformed on
About Ken Zino
Ken Zino, editor and publisher of AutoInformed, is a versatile auto industry participant with global experience spanning decades in print and broadcast journalism, as well as social media. He has automobile testing, marketing, public relations and communications experience. He is past president of The International Motor Press Assn, the Detroit Press Club, founding member and first President of the Automotive Press Assn. He is a member of APA, IMPA and the Midwest Automotive Press Assn. He also brings an historical perspective while citing their contemporary relevance of the work of legendary auto writers such as Ken Purdy, Jim Dunne or Jerry Flint, or writers such as Red Smith, Mark Twain, Thomas Jefferson – all to bring perspective to a chaotic automotive universe. Above all, decades after he first drove a car, Zino still revels in the sound of the exhaust as the throttle is blipped during a downshift and the driver’s rush that occurs when the entry, apex and exit points of a turn are smoothly and swiftly crossed. It’s the beginning of a perfect lap. AutoInformed has an editorial philosophy that loves transportation machines of all kinds while promoting critical thinking about the future use of cars and trucks. Zino builds AutoInformed from his background in automotive journalism starting at Hearst Publishing in New York City on Motor and MotorTech Magazines and car testing where he reviewed hundreds of vehicles in his decade-long stint as the Detroit Bureau Chief of Road & Track magazine. Zino has also worked in Europe, and Asia – now the largest automotive market in the world with China at its center.