The defendants to publish a public apology and statement regarding their crimes at the upcoming 2023 SEMA Show
Miami—Defendants Vivian Machado, 62, Eric Flaquer, 39, and the Miami-based companies Quick Tricks Automotive Performance, Inc., and Kloud9Nine, LLC were sentenced Friday in federal district court for conspiring to tamper with environmental monitoring devices on diesel vehicles, in violation of the Clean Air Act (CAA).
Flaquer was sentenced to three months imprisonment followed by three years of supervised release, with a special condition of six months home detention with electronic monitoring. Machado was sentenced to time served followed by three years of supervised release, with a special condition of 10 months of home detention with electronic monitoring. Both companies, Quick Tricks and Kloud9Nine, were sentenced to probation. The defendants were further sentenced to publish a public apology and statement regarding their crimes at the 2023 Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) trade show.
Between January 2018 and December 2020, defendants Machado, Flaquer, and Quick Tricks were paid approximately $230,830.61 for 1,100 transactions for the sale of “delete tune files” that tamper with or disable the OBDs on heavy-duty diesel motor vehicles that were required under the CAA to have OBD systems to monitor their emissions control systems.
Similarly, between October 2019 and March 2021, Machado, Flaquer, and Kloud9Nine were paid $141,162.70 for an additional 657 “tuner” transactions. The defendants would customize the delete tune files based on the vehicle identification number and desired parameters, and would conduct active customer service for the device customers.
Knowing the conduct was illegal, the defendants would often warn customers by e-mail not to tell anyone about the purchases and to take steps to avoid detection by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and “stay under the radar.”
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