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Diesel Brothers Ordered To Pay $848,000 For Air Pollution Violations
The tuning firm also gets a “lifetime ban” on further emissions violations.
Back in August 2016, it was reported that a group of Utah doctors is planning to sue local tuners Diesel Brothers, who they believe have made illegal modifications to vehicles’ emissions control systems. Now, almost four years later, U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby has ruled that the tuning company, which also stars in a Discovery Channel show of the same name, must pay no less than $848,000 for modifying, marketing, and selling diesel trucks with removed emission control systems and for violating emissions standards.
“Illegally stripped down and modified diesel trucks have no place on our roadways,” Dr. Brian Moench, president of the doctors’ group that brought the charge into court, commented after the ruling. “Any business that not only profits from doing that, but glorifies the plumes of pollution that their handiwork produces, should be held accountable, and that’s what this ruling does.”
In addition, U.S. District Judge Robert Shelby also issued a permanent injunction barring the Diesel Brothers from further violations. The tuning firm will have to pay almost $850,000 in fines, of which the biggest part will go to the U.S. Treasury. Another $90,000 will be paid to the Davis County Tampered Diesel Truck Restoration Program.
While the “lifetime ban” on further emissions violations should mean Diesel Brothers will no longer be able to develop, produce, and sell heavily modified diesel trucks, the company doesn’t seem to be too concerned, judging by its social media activity. Not a single of the firm’s social media channels is even mentioning the ruling at this point.
It All Started With The Dieselgate:
“This order only has approximately 10% of the money staying in Utah,” Cole Cannon, the Diesel Brothers’ attorney, commented. “The other gets sent to Washington, D.C., and we all know how useful that’s going to be.
