SPOKANE, Wash. – Two men have been indicted by the US Department of Justice for allegedly trying to trick pollution control software in their trucks.
According to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington, Pavel Ivanovich Turlak’s companies PT Express LLC, Spokane Truck Service LLC, and Paul’s Trans LLC used illegal software to trick emissions monitoring devices on his trucks.
Turlak was indicted alongside Ryan Hugh Milliken and his company Hardway Solutions.
“The indictment alleges Milliken created and sold custom software ‘delete tunes’ to Turlak for specific vehicles based on specifications provided by Turlak. Turlak then charged as much as $3,500 to diesel truck owners to ‘delete’ and ‘tune’ their vehicles by tampering with and rendering inaccurate required monitoring devices,” the US Attorney’s Office said.
Both Turlak and Milliken will face charges for allegedly violating the Clean Air Act in federal court.
Turlak faces additional charges for purportedly fraudulently obtaining $300,000 in small business COVID-19 relief funding according to the US Attorney’s Office.
EPA, Small Business Administration and Office of the Inspector General investigators joined police in investigating the alleged scheme to flout federal truck emission regulations.
