Louisiana Company and Its Owner Sentenced for Manufacturing and Selling Software that Allowed the Disabling of Emissions Controls on Motor Vehicles

Louisiana-based company Power Performance Enterprises Inc. (PPEI) and its president and owner, Kory B. Willis, were sentenced yesterday in federal court in Sacramento, California, for violating and conspiring to violate the Clean Air Act by tampering with the monitoring devices of emissions control systems of diesel trucks.

U.S. District Court Judge John A. Mendez for the Eastern District of California sentenced Willis to serve 10 months of home confinement as part of a three-year term of probation and ordered Willis and PPEI to jointly pay $1.55 million in criminal fines. PPEI was ordered to complete a five-year term of probation. Willis and PPEI pleaded guilty in March 2022. In total, Willis and PPEI have been ordered to pay $3.1 million in criminal fines and civil penalties related to Clean Air Act enforcement.

“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.”

According to court documents, from PPEI’s incorporation in 2009 until 2019, PPEI and Willis were among the nation’s most prominent developers of custom software known as “tunes,” and in particular, “delete tunes.” Generally, tunes can alter a diesel truck’s fuel delivery, power parameters and emissions. Delete tunes allow vehicles to remove or disable emissions controls, while appearing to run normally, resulting in vastly increased emissions of air pollution. PPEI and Willis were well known for their custom 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. According to calculations by the EPA, the estimated emissions impact of PPEI’s sales of delete tunes between 2013 and 2018 alone are expected to cause over 100 million excess pounds of nitrogen oxides (NOx) emissions over the life of the diesel trucks equipped with those products.  

Deleting a diesel truck causes its emissions to increase dramatically. For example, for a fully deleted truck, which has had all emissions equipment removed or disabled, EPA testing quantified the increased emissions as follows: NOx increased 310 times, non-methane hydrocarbons increased 1,400 times, carbon monoxide increased 120 times and particulate matter increased 40 times. EPA’s Air Enforcement Division released a report in November 2020 finding that more than half a million diesel pickup trucks in the United States — approximately 15% of U.S. diesel trucks that were originally certified with emissions controls — have been illegally deleted.

Diesel emissions include multiple hazardous compounds and harm human health and the environment. Diesel emissions have been found to cause and worsen respiratory ailments such as asthma and lung cancer. One study indicated that 21,000 American deaths annually are attributable to diesel particulate matter. Exposure to polluted air in utero has also been associated with a host of problems with lifelong ramifications including low birth weight, preterm birth, autism, brain/memory disorders and asthma.

Stopping aftermarket defeat devices for vehicles and engines is a top priority for EPA. Visit EPA’s website to learn more about its efforts to stop the sale of illegal defeat devices.

EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division investigated the case.

Senior Counsel Krishna S. Dighe and Trial Attorney Stephen J. Foster of ENRD’s Environmental Crimes Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Katherine T. Lydon for the Eastern District of California and are prosecuting the criminal case.