Tacoma – Tracy Coiteux, 44, co-owner of Racing Performance Maintenance Northwest (RPM) and RPM Motors and Sales NW, was convicted of conspiracy and 11 felony counts of violating the federal Clean Air Act for tampering with diesel trucks’ emissions monitoring systems, announced U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman.
Coiteux was found guilty after a three-day jury trial, with the jury deliberating for three hours before returning the guilty verdicts. U.S. District Judge Benjamin H. Settle scheduled sentencing for August 19, 2024.
An indictment returned in May 2021 charged Coiteux, her husband Sean Coiteux, 50, and service manager Nick Akerill, 44, with conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act and 11 specific violations of the Clean Air Act for tampering with the emissions-monitoring system on vehicles between January 2018 and November 2020.
Sean Coiteux pleaded guilty in March 2024 and is scheduled for sentencing on August 13, 2024. Akerill pleaded guilty to state pollution charges and was sentenced to work 30 days on a Clark County work crew.
According to records filed in the case and testimony at trial, the investigation began when a former RPM employee notified the EPA that the company was performing the unlawful modifications, which are known as “deletes” and “tunes.” A single truck that has been deleted and tuned can cause the same amount of pollution as up to 1,200 trucks with compliant emissions systems.
The defendants charged their customers fees of about $2,000 per truck to remove emissions control systems required by federal law and modified legally required software to ensure the vehicle’s pollution remains within legal limits. RPM Motors and Sales sometimes offered to remove the emissions control system after the customer purchased a truck. Email and other electronic records document the conspirators’ purchase of equipment and software kits to remove the pollution control and reprogram the monitoring systems.
When agents executed a court-authorized search warrant in January 2021, they found some of the emissions parts that had been removed and the replacement tailpipes. They found records detailing 375 instances of removal of the emissions control hardware and software. The defendants took in more than $500,000 for the modifications that violate the Clean Air Act.
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Key Facts
- State: Washington
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: Official Source ↗
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