Fiat Chrysler engineer pleads guilty in using device to violate Clean Air Act
July 20 (UPI) -- Fiat Chrysler Automobiles executive Emanuele Palma pleaded guilty Thursday in a felony conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act.
According to Justice Department officials, Palma and others used so-called "software defeat devices" to lower vehicle emissions during testing on Jeep Grand Cherokee and Ram 1500 diesel vehicles, and they concealed the devices' usage from the EPA.
Court documents show Palma admitted to the crime. He was a calibration engineer working for the company in Italy.
A federal court sentencing is scheduled Oct. 17 in Detroit.
"Senior auto officials at FCA US, including Mr. Palma, conspired to circumvent pollution standards and obtain EPA certifications for hundreds of thousands of SUVs and pickup trucks under false pretenses," Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim said in a statement.
According to the Justice Department, the auto executives developed and purposely calibrated FCA diesel engines to emit less nitrogen oxide pollution during test cycles than they did in real-world driving.
They conspired to keep knowledge of the software function they used, known as "T Eng," from the EPA. Omitting that information from FCA's applications for Certificates of Conformity from the EPA meant the vehicles got approval to be sold pursuant to the Clean Air Act.
The Justice Department said Thursday that the guilty plea is related to the corporate plea and sentencing of FCA U.S. LLC in August 2022, during which the automaker was fined $96.1 million and ordered to forfeit more than $203.5 million. FCA is also on a three-year term of organizational probation.
"Mr. Palma and those he worked with concealed material information from the EPA about how certain of Fiat Chrysler's diesel engines operated," U.S. Attorney Dawn N. Ison for the Eastern District of Michigan said in a statement. "Our environmental laws depend on companies being honest and transparent with the EPA about the environmental impact of their products. The conduct in this case falls well short of that standard, and today's guilty plea provides a measure of accountability for this deceptive conduct."
Volkswagen was found in 2015 to have installed "defeat devices" that lowered emissions during testing compared to real-world driving. The automaker had to pay billions of dollars as a result.
In 2020, the company was ordered by Germany's highest court to buy back vehicles, paying some 60,000 owners as much as $31,000 per vehicle because they were fitted with illegal emissions software.
