Prominent diesel truck ‘delete tuner’ ordered to pay $3.1 million

A Louisiana company and its owner have been ordered to pay millions for violating and conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act by tampering with emissions controls on tens of thousands of diesel trucks, officials say.

Louisiana-based Power Performance Enterprises Inc. (PPEI) and its president and owner, Kory B. Willis, were ordered to pay $3.1 million in criminal fines and civil penalties, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Additionally, Willis was sentenced to 10 months of home confinement as part of a three-year term of probation. PPEI was sentenced to five years of probation.

Willis and PPEI pleaded guilty to conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act and to violating the Clean Air Act in 2022 for tampering with the monitoring devices of emissions control systems of diesel trucks using software called “delete tunes.” Delete tunes are custom software that will allow a vehicle to continue to operate after emissions controls have been deleted, which “can alter a diesel truck’s fuel delivery, power parameters and emissions.”

Officials say that between 2009 and 2019, “PPEI and Willis were among the nation’s most prominent developers of custom software known as ‘tunes,’ and in particular, ‘delete tunes.’ Willis and PPEI reached the top of the illegal delete tuning market, tuning over 175,000 vehicles according to Willis. Willis also stated that PPEI was the biggest custom tuning company in the world, servicing over 100,000 customers and tuning more than 500 vehicles a week. According to internal PPEI records, PPEI typically sold well over $1 million dollars of product per month.”

“The software that Mr. Willis and PPEI manufactured and sold reversed the effects of emissions control requirements for vehicles driven on our country’s roads, posing unacceptable risk to the health of our citizens,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD). “This sentencing shows that we will take strong action to enforce the Clean Air Act and ensure that mandated emissions controls remain operating on vehicles to protect public health and the environment.”

“Environmental laws that control diesel pollution safeguard the environment and the health of the public, and are especially important to protect sensitive populations such as the young, the elderly, and people who suffer from respiratory conditions,” said U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert for the Eastern District of California. “Those who would sell illegal defeat devices should stand warned: the U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to vigorously prosecute those who place profit above the public’s health and the environment.”

“For decades, EPA has prioritized efforts to halt the illegal sale of aftermarket defeat devices, which cause dangerous air pollution from trucks and cars,” said Assistant Administrator David M. Uhlmann of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Today’s criminal sentencing punishes the defendants for their deliberate attempts to evade the requirements of the Clean Air Act and follows an earlier 2022 civil enforcement action addressing their misconduct. EPA will continue to leverage all of its enforcement tools and authorities to stop illegal behavior that puts our communities at risk.”