Rudy’s Performance Parts Inc., an automotive parts manufacturer and seller based in North Carolina, along with its owner, Aaron Rudolf, have agreed to pay $10 million in fines and penalties for manufacturing, selling, and installing emissions defeat devices.
These devices were used to disable or remove emissions controls in motor vehicles, violating the Clean Air Act.
Rudy’s pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act. U.S. District Court Judge Trevor N. McFadden sentenced the company to a $2.4 million criminal fine and imposed a three-year period of organizational probation as part of the plea agreement.
Rudolf, the owner and CEO, had previously pleaded guilty in April to similar charges, involving the tampering of emissions controls on approximately 300 diesel trucks. Rudolf was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay a $600,000 criminal fine.
In addition to the criminal penalties, the Justice Department, on behalf of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), filed a civil lawsuit in 2022 against Rudy’s and Rudolf. The lawsuit cited violations of the Clean Air Act for manufacturing, selling, and installing defeat devices, as well as failing to adequately respond to formal requests for information from the EPA.
Under a consent decree filed on July 29, 2024, Rudy’s and Rudolf agreed to pay a $7 million civil penalty. The decree also prohibits them from making, selling, offering to sell, or installing defeat devices in the future. They are also barred from transferring intellectual property that would allow others to make or sell defeat devices and from profiting from businesses that sell these illegal devices. The decree is pending court approval.
Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim emphasized the dangers of defeat devices, stating they can lead to elevated pollution levels that pose health risks and damage the environment. EPA’s Assistant Administrator David M. Uhlmann and U.S. Attorneys Matthew M. Graves and Sandra J. Hairston also highlighted the importance of enforcing the Clean Air Act to protect public health and hold violators accountable.
According to court documents, Rudy’s sold defeat devices known as “delete tuners,” which tampered with vehicle on-board diagnostic systems (OBDs) to disable emissions controls. The company’s top-selling products included the Mini Maxx and XRT Pro delete tuners. After the original manufacturer stopped production, Rudy’s conspired with others to create imitation versions of these tuners and continued to sell them.
From 2014 to mid-2019, Rudy’s and Rudolf sold over 250,000 products designed to remove or disable emissions controls, generating approximately $33 million in revenue. These products contributed to significant increases in vehicle emissions, adding the equivalent pollution of over 1 million vehicles on U.S. roads.
The EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division investigated the criminal case, and the consent decree was lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina. The consent decree is subject to a 30-day public comment period and approval by the court.
This article, "North Carolina Auto Parts Seller and Owner to Pay $10M for Emissions Defeat Devices" was first published on Small Business Trends
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Joshua Sophy, Khareem Sudlow
