Diesel performance parts retailers GDP Tuning LLC and Custom Auto of Rexburg LLC, dba Gorilla Performance, as well as the companies’ owner Barry Pierce, pleaded guilty to criminal charges in federal court in Pocatello, Idaho, and agreed to pay a total of $1 million in criminal fines. The companies also agreed to implement compliance programs and to not manufacture, sell or install any device that defeats a vehicle’s emissions controls.
Under the plea agreement, the companies and Pierce agree to pay a $1 million criminal fine. Pierce also faces up to two years in prison.
According to court documents, GDP Tuning conspired with Pierce and others to violate the CAA by purchasing and selling tens of thousands of tuning devices and accompanying software which, when used together, tampered with vehicles’ on-board diagnostic (OBD) systems. OBDs normally detect any removal and malfunction of a vehicle’s emissions control equipment and record a diagnostic trouble code which will illuminate a vehicle’s “check engine light.” If the malfunction is not remedied, some vehicles can go into “limp mode,” where the maximum speed is limited to 5 mph as an incentive to have the vehicle repaired.
GDP Tuning bought and sold devices and software that allowed customers to reprogram or “tune” a vehicle’s OBD. This reprogramming tampers with emissions monitoring built into the diagnostic system and allows removal of the vehicle’s emissions control equipment without detection by the OBD. Removing a vehicle’s emissions controls is referred to as a “delete” and is accompanied by a “delete tune.”
In addition to GDP Tuning’s national wholesale operation, Gorilla Performance and Pierce operated a retail shop and auto repair facility in Rexburg, Idaho, where customers’ trucks were deleted and tuned.
Sentencing is scheduled for November 8 before U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill for the District of Idaho. Though the corporate defendants agreed to pay $1 million in criminal fines under the plea agreements, they face a maximum fine per count of $500,000 or twice the gross pecuniary gain derived from the offense. The defendants’ sentences will be determined at the discretion of the court after application of statutory factors and the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.