Kyle Offringa, Conspiracy to Violate the Clean Air Act, New York 2024

A Michigan resident and a heavy-duty diesel parts supplier have been indicted by a grand jury in the Northern District of New York for conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act.

Kyle Offringa, 33, of Caledonia, Michigan, and Highway and Heavy Parts, LLC (HHP), a heavy-duty diesel parts supplier headquartered in Coleman, Michigan, were charged with conspiring with a diesel truck operator in Fultonville, New York, and others, to remove, delete and tamper with monitoring devices on heavy-duty diesel trucks required to be maintained by the Clean Air Act and EPA regulations.

Pursuant to the Clean Air Act, the EPA enacted regulations that require heavy-duty diesel engine manufacturers to limit emissions on those engines. To comply with these regulations, manufacturers install hardware components, including filters, exhaust recirculation systems and exhaust aftertreatment systems. Heavy-duty diesel trucks are also required under the Clean Air Act to maintain an onboard-diagnostic system (OBD), which monitors the functionality of the hardware emissions control components.

As alleged in the indictment, truck operators deleted the emissions control hardware on their heavy-duty diesel trucks, which significantly increased pollution emitted by those trucks but allowed them to run at higher horsepower, with greater fuel efficiency, and with reduced maintenance cost. To help truck operators who had deleted emissions hardware, HHP charged its customers a fee for the services of Offringa, who reprogrammed the OBDs on vehicles so they would not detect that the components had been tampered with.

The charges in the indictment are merely accusations. The defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

HHP was arraigned Friday in Albany before United States Magistrate Judge Christian F. Hummel. Offringa is scheduled to be arraigned May 15.

The charge filed against Offringa carries a maximum term of 5 years in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, and a term of supervised release of up to 3 years. The charge filed against HHP carries a fine of up to $500,000 and a term of probation of up to 5 years. A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors.

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