Feds charge Roseville company with selling thousands of kits to defeat emission controls
Federal prosecutors have filed charges against a Roseville company alleging a conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act by selling thousands of devices allowing truck drivers to defeat emissions controls on vehicles.
An information filed in federal court in Sacramento on Monday charges Sinister Manufacturing Co. and its Sinister Diesel arm with conspiracy and tampering with a monitoring device required under the federal Clean Air Act.
The information alleges that from Sinister’s founding in 2010 through April 30, 2020, the company “manufactured and sold parts intended to be installed on a vehicle to enable removal or disabling of the vehicle’s emissions control system.”
Court documents say Sinister sold what are known as “delete kits” and “tuners” or “tunes” to allow a vehicle that has had its emission controls removed to run normally, a practice designed to help drivers increase horsepower and avoid maintenance costs.
“Deleting a diesel truck causes its emissions to increase dramatically,” court documents say. “Diesel emissions include multiple hazardous compounds that deleteriously impact human health and the environment.”
Sinister officials did not immediately respond Tuesday to a phone message left at its Roseville offices or to a message sent through its website seeking comment.
The government contends Sinister entered into agreements with another company, identified only as Company A, to sell its products to customers and made its own kits “used in connection with deleting emissions control equipment and tampering with the monitoring function” of a vehicle’s on-board diagnostic system.
“At times, Sinister characterized its delete products as for racing and/or included disclaimers in its sales and marketing materials indicating that its products should be used only in offroad settings,” court documents say. “However, Sinister knew the bulk of its end user customers were diesel truck drivers who used the delete products they purchased from Sinister on public roads, not racetracks.
“Sinister counseled end users on how to evade state emissions tests for motor vehicles, advising customers to remove Sinister’s delete products in order to pass emissions tests and then reinstall them.”
For instance, on an April 2015 sales call a Sinister employee talked a customer through the process of deleting emission controls on his truck and “explained that certain of the required products were not available for purchase on Sinister’s website but Sinister would sell them to him over the phone,” court documents say.
The company “sold tens of thousands of defeat devices, including hard parts, tuners/tuning platforms, and delete tunes which tampered with the monitoring function” of vehicles’ on-board diagnostic systems, court documents say.
The case is the second of its type to be charged in Sacramento federal court since last year, authorities say, with identical charges being filed against a Louisiana company called Power Performance Enterprises Inc. and its president, Kory B. Willis.
Both Willis and the company pleaded guilty last year, court documents say. Sentencing before U.S. District Judge John A. Mendez is set for next January.
