On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced in a press release that FCA US (formerly Chrysler Group LLC) was convicted of conspiracy to defraud U.S. regulators and customers with false representations about the emissions compliance of more than 100,000 diesel vehicles.
As a result of the conviction FCA US was sentenced in federal court to pay a fine of $96,145,784, a forfeiture money judgment of $203,572,892, and a three-year term of organizational probation was imposed on them.
Larry Starfield, Acting Assistant Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance, stated, “Today’s sentencing clearly demonstrates that the EPA and our federal partners will hold major corporations like FCA accountable for complying with vehicle emissions standards. Stopping violations of environmental laws and the defrauding of consumers is paramount to the protection of clean air and human health.”
The press release references the court documents, stating, FCA US marketed their 3-liter diesel engine as “Ecodiesel” and fuel efficient. FCA US installed software features in the diesel vehicles which fraudulently achieved required emissions standards. FCA US engaged in other deceptive conduct to avoid U.S. regulator and customer scrutiny.
According to the press release, with FCA US’s guilty plea, is the agreement to continue the implementation of a compliance and ethics program intended to prevent fraudulent conduct (such as, the aforementioned fraudulent conduct the implemented compliance and ethics program was intended to prevent in the first place).
