DOJ ANNOUNCES HARLEY-DAVIDSON TO STOP SALES OF ILLEGAL DEVICES TO INCREASE AIR POLLUTION

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT

 Department of Justice

Office of Public Affairs

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Harley-Davidson to Stop Sales of Illegal Devices That Increased Air Pollution from the Company’s Motorcycles

The Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a settlement with Harley-Davidson Inc., Harley-Davidson Motor Company Group LLC, Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Company Inc. and Harley-Davidson Motor Company Operations Inc. (collectively Harley-Davidson), that requires the companies to stop selling and to buy back and destroy illegal devices that increase air pollution from their motorcycles and to sell only models of these devices that are certified to meet Clean Air Act emissions standards.  Harley-Davidson will also pay a $12 million civil penalty and spend $3 million to mitigate air pollution through a project to replace conventional woodstoves with cleaner-burning stoves in local communities.

The government’s complaint, filed today along with the settlement, alleges that Harley-Davidson manufactured and sold approximately 340,000 illegal devices, known as “super tuners,” that, once installed, caused motorcycles to emit higher amounts of certain air pollutants than what the company certified to EPA.  Aftermarket defeat devices like these super tuners alter a motor vehicle’s emissions controls and are prohibited under the Clean Air Act for use on vehicles that have been certified to meet EPA emissions standards.  Harley-Davidson also made and sold more than 12,000 motorcycles that were not covered by an EPA certification that ensures a vehicle meets federal clean air standards.

“Given Harley-Davidson’s prominence in the industry, this is a very significant step toward our goal of stopping the sale of illegal aftermarket defeat devices that cause harmful pollution on our roads and in our communities,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden, head of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.  “Anyone else who manufactures, sells, or installs these types of illegal products should take heed of Harley-Davidson’s corrective actions and immediately stop violating the law.”

“This settlement immediately stops the sale of illegal aftermarket defeat devices used on public roads that threaten the air we breathe,” said Assistant Administrator Cynthia Giles of EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.  “Harley-Davidson is taking important steps to buy back the ‘super tuners’ from their dealers and destroy them, while funding projects to mitigate the pollution they caused.”

Since January 2008, Harley-Davidson has manufactured and sold two types of tuners, which when hooked up to Harley-Davidson motorcycles, allow users to modify certain aspects of a motorcycles’ emissions control system.  These modified settings increase power and performance, but also increase the motorcycles’ emissions of hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides (NOx).  These tuners have been sold at Harley-Davidson dealerships across the country.

The Clean Air Act requires motor vehicle manufacturers to certify to EPA that their vehicles will meet applicable federal emissions standards to control air pollution and every motor vehicle sold in the U.S. must be covered by an EPA-issued certificate of conformity.  The Clean Air Act prohibits manufacturers from making and selling devices that bypass, defeat, or render inoperative a motor vehicle’s EPA-certified emissions control system.  The act also prohibits any person from removing or rendering inoperative a motor vehicle’s certified emissions control system and from causing such tampering.  The complaint alleges violations of both these provisions.

Under the settlement, Harley-Davidson will stop selling the illegal aftermarket defeat devices in the United States by August 23.  Harley-Davidson will also offer to buy back all such tuners in stock at Harley-Davidson dealerships across the country and destroy them.  The settlement requires the company to obtain a certification from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) for any tuners it sells in the United States in the future.  The CARB certification will demonstrate that the CARB-certified tuners do not cause Harley-Davidson’s motorcycles to exceed the EPA-certified emissions limits.  Harley-Davidson will also conduct tests on motorcycles that have been tuned with the CARB-certified tuners and provide the results to EPA to ensure that its motorcycles remain in compliance with EPA emissions requirements.  In addition, for any super tuners that Harley-Davidson sells outside the United States in the future, it must label them as not for use in the United States.

The complaint also alleges that Harley-Davidson made and sold more than 12,000 motorcycles from model years 2006, 2007 and 2008 that were not covered by an EPA certificate of conformity.  A certificate of conformity covers only the motorcycle models that were included in the certification application and that are listed on the certificate.  These 12,000 motorcycles were models that were not included in Harley-Davidson’s applications and that were not listed as covered by the relevant certificate.  Under the consent decree, Harley-Davidson will ensure that all of its future motorcycle models intended for sale in the United States are fully certified by EPA.

Hydrocarbon and NOx emissions contribute to harmful ground-level ozone and NOx also contributes to fine particulate matter pollution. Exposure to these pollutants has been linked with a range of serious health effects, including increased asthma attacks and other respiratory illnesses.  Exposure to ozone and particulate matter has also been associated with premature death due to respiratory-related or cardiovascular-related effects.  Children, the elderly and people with pre-existing respiratory disease are particularly at risk of health effects from exposure to these pollutants.  The woodstove project, which Harley-Davidson will undertake in conjunction with an independent third party, will eliminate excess air pollution caused by using the illegal tuners by providing cleaner-burning stoves to designated local communities, thereby assuring better air quality in the future.

EPA discovered the violations through a routine inspection and information Harley-Davidson submitted after subsequent agency information requests.

The settlement, a proposed consent decree lodged in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, is subject to a 30-day public comment period before it can be entered by the court as final judgment.

DOJ ANNOUNCES CEMENT MAKER TO REDUCE AIR POLLUTION UNDER SETTLEMENT

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

AIR POLLUTION, EPA, 

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Cement Manufacturer Cemex to Reduce Harmful Air Pollution from Five Plants under Settlement with EPA and Justice Department

The Department of Justice and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today announced a settlement with Cemex Inc., under which the company will invest approximately $10 million to cut emissions of harmful air pollution at five of its cement manufacturing plants in Alabama, Kentucky, Tennessee and Texas to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Air Act.  Under the consent decree lodged in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, Cemex will also pay a $1.69 million civil penalty, conduct energy audits at the five plants, and spend $150,000 on energy efficiency projects to mitigate the effects of past excess emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx)from its facilities.

“The cement sector is a significant source of air pollution posing real health risks to the communities where they reside, including vulnerable communities across the U.S. who deserve better air quality than they have gotten over the years,” said Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This agreement will require Cemex to pay a penalty and install important pollution controls to achieve reductions in harmful air emissions, thereby making  Cemex a better neighbor to local residents.”

“This settlement requires Cemex to use state of the art technology to reduce harmful air pollution, improving public health in vulnerable communities across the South and Southeast,” said Assistant Administrator Cynthia Giles for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance.  “EPA is committed to tackling clean air violations at the largest sources, cutting the pollutants that cause respiratory illnesses like asthma.”

The five Cemex facilities produce Portland cement, a key ingredient in concrete, mortar, and stucco are located in Demopolis, Alabama, Louisville, Kentucky, Knoxville, Tennessee, and New Braunfels and Odessa, Texas.  The Knox County, Tennessee, and Louisville air pollution control authorities participated in this settlement.

Cemex is required to install pollution control technology that will reduce emissions of  NOx and establish strict limits for sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions, which will improve air quality in local communities.  Cemex will install and continuously operate a selective non-catalytic reduction system for controlling NOx at the five plants and meet emission limits that are consistent with the current best available control technology for NOx.  EPA estimates this will result in NOx emissions reductions of over 4,000 tons per year.  Each facility will also be subject to strict SO2 emission limits.

NOx and SO2, two key pollutants emitted from cement plants, have numerous adverse effects on human health and are significant contributors to acid rain, smog and haze.  The pollutants are converted in the air into fine particles of particulate matter that can cause severe respiratory and cardiovascular impacts and premature death.  Reducing these harmful air pollutants will benefit the communities located near the Cemex plants, particularly communities disproportionately impacted by environmental risks and vulnerable populations, including children.

This settlement is part of EPA’s National Enforcement Initiative to control harmful emissions from large sources of pollution, which includes cement manufacturing plants, under the Clean Air Act’s Prevention of Significant Deterioration requirements.  The total combined SO2 and NOx emission reductions secured from cement plant settlements under this initiative will exceed 75,000 tons each year once all the required pollution controls have been installed and implemented.

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NATIONAL CONSULTING COMPANY TO PAY $11 MILLION RESOLVING FALSE CLAIMS ALLEGATIONS

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Deloitte Consulting LLP Agrees to Pay $11 Million for Alleged False Claims Related to General Services Administration Contract

The Department of Justice announced today that Deloitte Consulting LLP (Deloitte) has agreed to pay $11.38 million to resolve allegations under the False Claims Act that it submitted false claims under a General Services Administration (GSA) contract.  Deloitte is a nationwide consulting company headquartered in New York City.

“Contractors are expected to deal fairly with federal agencies when receiving taxpayer funds,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Benjamin C. Mizer, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Division.  “As this settlement demonstrates, we will take action against those who knowingly fail to live up to the terms of their government contracts.”  

In 2000, GSA awarded Deloitte a contract for the provision of information technology services.  The contract required Deloitte to reduce the prices it charged the government if it offered lower prices to specific commercial customers during the course of the contract.  This settlement resolves allegations that between 2006 and 2012, Deloitte failed to comply with the price reductions clause in its contract, resulting in government customers paying more for Deloitte’s services than comparable commercial customers.

“American taxpayers deserve fair deals and prices from GSA contractors,” said GSA Inspector General Carol Fortine Ochoa.  “I appreciate the hard work and dedication that led to this significant recovery.”

This case was handled by the Civil Division’s Commercial Litigation Branch and the GSA Office of Inspector General.

The claims resolved by the settlement are allegations only; there has been no determination of liability.

CORNING INTERNATIONAL K.K. WILL PAY $66.5 MILLION FOR PRICE FIXING

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Monday, May 16, 2016

Corning International Kabushiki Kaisha to Pay $66.5 Million for Fixing Prices of Automotive Parts

Corning International Kabushiki Kaisha (Corning International K.K.) has agreed to plead guilty and pay a $66.5 million criminal fine for conspiring to fix prices, rig bids and allocate the market for ceramic substrates sold in the United States and elsewhere, and used in catalytic converters supplied to automobile manufacturers in the United States and elsewhere, the Justice Department announced today.

According to the felony charge filed today in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Corning International K.K., based in Tokyo, conspired to fix prices, rig bids and allocate the market for ceramic substrates, from at least as early as July 1999 until on or about July 2011.  The products were installed in automotive emissions control systems and supplied to automobile manufacturers including Ford Motor Company, General Motors LLC, Honda Motor Company Ltd., and certain of their subsidiaries, affiliates, and suppliers in the United States and elsewhere.  Corning International K.K. agreed to cooperate in the department’s ongoing investigation.  The plea agreement will be subject to court approval.

“Corning International K.K. – and Nobuhiko Niwa, its former executive, who was indicted last week – spent more than a decade colluding on sales of an important component of emissions systems for use in cars made and sold in the United States and elsewhere,” said Deputy Assistant Attorney General Brent Snyder of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division.  “But they have now been held accountable for the competitive harm they caused.”

“Corning International K.K.'s conspiracy to rig bids and fix prices brought the company increased revenues at a cost to auto manufacturers, suppliers, and ultimately, consumers,” said Special Agent in Charge David P. Gelios of the FBI’s Detroit Division.  “Attempts to thwart the free market system are damaging to our economy, and thereby its consumers, and will be actively investigated and prosecuted.”

Including Corning International K.K., 40 companies have been charged in connection with this investigation and have agreed to pay more than $2.7 billion in criminal fines.  In addition, 59 individuals have been charged, including a former executive of Corning International K.K.  On May 11, 2016, a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Michigan returned an indictment against Nobuhiko Niwa, a Japanese national, for his role in the conspiracy.  Niwa was charged with participating in the conspiracy from at least as early as July 1999 until on or about July 2011.

This charge results from an ongoing investigation conducted by the Antitrust Division’s Washington Criminal I Section and the FBI’s Detroit Division with the assistance of the FBI Headquarters’ International Corruption Unit.

SHIPPING COMPANY WILL PAY $2.5 MILLION FOR OIL DISCHARGE

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Friday, April 8, 2016

Norwegian Shipping Company Sentenced in Alabama to Pay $2.5 Million for Illegally Discharging Oil into the Ocean

The Norwegian shipping company DSD Shipping (DSD) was sentenced to pay a total corporate penalty of $2.5 million as a result of its convictions in Mobile, Alabama, for obstructing justice, violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS), tampering with witnesses and conspiring to commit these offenses.  The company was ordered to pay $500,000 of the penalty to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab Foundation to fund marine research and enhance coastal habitats in the Gulf of Mexico and Mobile Bay.

In addition, DSD was placed on a three year term of probation and was ordered to implement an environmental compliance plan to ensure the company’s vessels obeyed domestic and international environmental regulations in the future.  The sentence was announced by Assistant Attorney General John C. Cruden for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division and U.S. Attorney Kenyen R. Brown for the Southern District of Alabama.

The operation of commercial marine vessels generates large quantities of waste oil, oil-contaminated waste water and garbage.  International and U.S. law forbid the discharge of waste oil and garbage into the ocean and require that these vessels use pollution prevention equipment, known as an oily-water separator, to prevent the discharge of oil-contaminated waste water.  Should any overboard discharges occur, they must be documented in either an oil record book or a garbage record book, logs that are regularly inspected by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The evidence demonstrated at trial that DSD operated the M/T Stavanger Blossom, a 56,000 gross ton crude oil tanker, from 2010 to 2014 without an operable oily-water separator as required by law.  On Jan. 29, 2010, an internal corporate memorandum written by a vessel engineer warned DSD that the pollution prevention equipment did not work.  The memo further warned that if the problem was not addressed, “some day, it might end up that someone is getting caught for polluting.”  However, rather than repair or replace the oily-water separator, DSD operated the vessel illegally for the next 57 months before the conduct was identified by U.S. Coast Guard inspectors in November 2014.  As the testimony at trial revealed, DSD illegally discharged approximately 20,000 gallons of oil-contaminated waste water and plastic bags containing 270 gallons of sludge into the ocean during the last two-and-a-half months of the vessel’s operation.

The evidence also established that DSD lied about these activities by maintaining fictitious record books aboard the vessel.  These records omitted the illegal discharges of oil and garbage and falsely claimed that pollution prevention equipment was used when it was not.  Further, when the U.S. Coast Guard examined the ship, DSD’s senior ship officers lied about the discharges and ordered their subordinates to do the same.

In court documents filed prior to sentencing, prosecutors informed the court that despite convictions for eight felony offenses, DSD continued to deny wrongdoing in Norwegian press accounts.  Prosecutors also noted that previous deficiencies in the operation of pollution prevention equipment had been identified in other DSD vessels while they were in international ports.

Three senior engineering officers employed by DSD to operate the ship were also sentenced.  Defendant Bo Gao, chief engineer of the vessel, and Xiaobing Chen, second engineer of the vessel, were both sentenced to six months imprisonment as a result of their conduct.  Defendant Xin Zhong, fourth engineer of the vessel, was sentenced to two months imprisonment.  All three also face the loss of their marine engineering license and exclusion from employment in the merchant marine.  A fourth DSD employee, Daniel Paul Dancu, pleaded guilty in October 2015, and will be sentenced on April 11, 2016.

“We will continue to aggressively prosecute and hold accountable those shipping companies who flout the laws that protect our oceans and coastal waterways from harmful vessel pollution and waste,” said Assistant Attorney General Cruden.  “It is fitting that a portion of this penalty will go towards repairing and protecting the Gulf coastal environment that is threatened by these illegal discharges.  This egregious abuse of the seas we share as a nation and an international community must stop.”

“We are very pleased with the fines and custody sentences imposed by the court in the case today,” announced U.S. Attorney Brown. “The fine and probation imposed against DSD, and the custody sentence imposed on the engineering officers reflect the seriousness of the offenses committed against the United States and the environment.  The U.S. Attorney’s Office will continue to investigate and prosecute environmental crimes.  It is incumbent upon all individuals and corporations to protect our environment and the resources along the Northern Gulf of Mexico.”

“The Coast Guard will not tolerate the pollution of our marine environment,” said Rear Admiral Dave Callahan for the Eighth Coast Guard District Commander.  “The individuals committing environmental crimes are putting our natural resources at risk and they must be held accountable.  I am thankful for the hard work and dedication that Coast Guard Sector Mobile, the Coast Guard Investigative Service, the Department of Justice, and the Environmental Protection Agency have put into the investigation and prosecution of this case.”

“The Coast Guard Investigative Service is deeply committed to protecting our nation’s waters and ensuring that those within the commercial shipping industry are good stewards of the marine environment,” said Director Michael Berkow for the Coast Guard Investigative Service.  “Sadly, although entirely preventable, pollution from vessels remains all too common. We hope the sentences in this case deter others from committing similar conduct.  We are grateful to our investigative partners for their assistance in the prosecution of this case.”

“When a company fails to comply with our nation’s environmental laws, it can have a devastating effect on both public health and wildlife,” said Special Agent in Charge Andy Castro of EPA’s criminal enforcement program in Alabama.  “The defendants knowingly discharged oily waste from a vessel into the open water and then tried to cover up their crimes by falsifying entries in the vessel’s log books.  This successful prosecution is another example of the effective partnership between the Department of Justice, the Coast Guard and EPA to protect the environment and our natural resources.”

This case was investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard Sector Mobile, U.S. Coast Guard District Eight, the Coast Guard Investigative Service, and the EPA’s Criminal Investigations Division.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael D. Anderson, with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama, and Trial Attorney Shane N. Waller, with the Department of Justice’s Environmental Crimes Section, prosecuted the case.