Another day, another headline about the Environmental Protection Agency nailing a diesel truck tuner over emissions defeat devices. In this case, it was actually a group of four business owners who were investigated by the EPA, FBI, and IRS for smuggling tens of millions of dollars worth of illegal tuning equipment into the United States. It’s a messy story that involves accusations of conspiring, money laundering, and a shell corporation based in the Cayman Islands. One of the defendants even said over email in 2020 that they were on “borrowed time” with the federal government, though they continued selling illegal parts for three more years.
John and Joshua Owens of Mapleton, Utah, are the subjects of the indictment, alongside Kevin Paul Dodd and Philip John Sweeney of British Columbia, Canada. Each played a role in getting thousands of illegal defeat devices across Canada’s southern border into Washington state. A press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Eastern District of Washington says they conspired to violate the Clean Air Act by smuggling the contraband and distributing it all across the country.
As a quick primer, these defeat devices are anything that restricts or prevents a vehicle’s emission reduction systems from operating as intended. That means both hardware and software are lumped into the category, with some modifications requiring physical alterations to a truck’s exhaust system while others are flashed onto their engine control unit. This often includes removing a truck’s diesel particulate filter (DPF) and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) system in addition to tweaking engine tuning files so the vehicle will run without its originally equipped components.
The indictment says between December 2015 and November 2023, the father and son combo of John and Joshua Owens purchased $33 million in emissions defeat devices from Dodd and Sweeney’s respective companies—Evolution Auto Performance and Evo Tunes Inc. belonging to the former and KX Wheels, the latter. Owens and Sweeney allegedly conspired to disguise the shipments of parts, with Sweeney saying over email in May 2022, “John We [sic] have lots of ways that we can get stuff across the border, I will give you a call later I just need you to be complacent and how we do it and I don’t wanna do it over email.”
Subtlety wasn’t always a top priority for the Owens family, though, as Joshua told Dodd in May 2020, “In June I’m winding down this ‘legal entity’ and staring [sic] up another one. Feels like I’m on borrowed time with the EPA.” After receiving requests for information about his business from the feds, he promptly renamed it to DPF Delete Shop, Inc.—a red flag to federal enforcement of the Clean Air Act if there ever was one. Owens started a new website, dpfdeleteshop.com, and listed a business address in the Cayman Islands to continue selling defeat devices “despite repeated warnings that they were illegal,” the U.S. Attorney Office’s release reads.
It was a lucrative gig with the John and Joshua Owens receiving more than $74 million in revenue through online sales of the defeat devices between 2017 and 2023. Keep in mind that by the end of that stint, many diesel aftermarket companies had already been dealt six- and seven-figure fines. And when one customer threatened to turn Owens in just last year, he responded, “We have all your info. You’ll be the guy we serve up on a silver platter to the EPA if it comes down to that.”
The EPA’s mission has been clear: Violators of the Clean Air Act will be found and prosecuted, no matter how big or small. The conspiracy charges could result in a maximum federal prison penalty of five years, but the smuggling and money laundering charges are more severe with a maximum sentence of up to 20 years imprisonment.
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