A married couple made more than a half million dollars by illegally modifying hundreds of diesel trucks through their Washington auto shop businesses — causing the vehicles “to spew poisonous pollutants” at levels that surpassed the legal limit, prosecutors said.
As the result of a Nov. 4 sentencing hearing in Tacoma federal court, Sean and Tracy Coiteux, the owners of Racing Performance Maintenance Northwest in Ridgefield and RPM Motors and Sales NW in Woodland, won’t serve any prison time, which had been requested by prosecutors, records show.
The Coiteuxs tampered with pollution control software in at least 375 diesel trucks by having their employees perform “deletes” and “tunes” between January 2018 and January 2021, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Washington.
At the couple’s direction, the employees got rid of pollution control systems that diesel trucks are supposed to have under federal law, and then modified the software that monitors the trucks’ pollution levels, prosecutors said.
The Coiteuxs “deleted and tuned more diesel vehicles than any other diesel repair shop nationwide that has been charged by the United States,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.
They profited off of poisoning the air, prosecutors argued.
Authorities said “the Coiteuxs collected over half a million dollars in proceeds from their criminal conduct while living a lavish lifestyle in a 5,700 square foot home on a 10-acre lot, complete with an in-ground saltwater pool and hot tub.”
Attorneys separately representing Sean and Tracy Coiteux didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ requests for comment Nov. 5.
The sentences
In March, Sean Coiteux pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Air Act, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. About two months later, a federal jury convicted Tracy Coiteux of conspiracy and 11 felony counts of violating the Clean Air Act, prosecutors said in a May 23 news release.
On Nov. 4, Sean and Tracy Coiteux were each sentenced to four years of probation under mandatory conditions and ordered to pay $10,000 fines, court records show.
As part of their sentences, they must be monitored by a GPS and remain in their homes for four months, except for certain circumstances, including work, religious or medical reasons.
At Tracy Coiteux’s trial, the government brought in an expert who testified that people may modify diesel trucks for several reasons, such as to lessen maintenance costs or to increase the vehicle’s horsepower, according to prosecutors.
The 375 trucks the Coiteuxs tampered with were estimated to release the same amount of “hazardous exhaust” into the air that would be released from more than 127,500 diesel trucks complying with federal regulations, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors had argued in support of a six-month prison sentence for Sean Coiteux and that he be fined $75,000 in his sentencing memorandum, in which they wrote he “increased the toxicity of the air that people who live near roads and highways have to breathe.”
His “decision to break the law was highly calculated,” they wrote.
According to prosecutors, the Coiteuxs told their employees to avoid answering questions about illegal diesel truck modifications over the phone.
The couple also kept a memo at the front desk of their business that warned employees that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “might show up unexpectedly,” according to prosecutors.
The couple told employees to not provide the EPA with information unless they legally had to, prosecutors wrote in Sean Coiteux’s sentencing memorandum.
“(Sean Coiteux) told his employees that, if law enforcement ever caught on to (his business’) illegal activity, he would get away with just a fine,” the sentencing memorandum says. “And Coiteux chose to endanger others for a simple reason: to make more money.”
For Tracy Coiteux, prosecutors recommended that the court sentence her to one year and one day in prison.
In her sentencing memorandum, they wrote that she continued to lie in court following her conviction in the case.
“At trial, Tracy Coiteux committed perjury when she testified in her defense and attempted to portray herself as a naïve bookkeeper rather than the experienced businesswoman she was. In fact, Coiteux claimed complete ignorance of the happenings of the shop she co-owned and operated for eight years with her husband,” prosecutors wrote in the sentencing memorandum.
In recommending prison time for Sean Coiteux, prosecutors argued that a sentence of incarceration would be “essential” to deter other business owners from similarly polluting the air.
The judge who sentenced Sean and Tracy Coiteux has ordered them to serve 60 hours of community service, court records show.
On Dec. 19, a sentencing hearing will be held for the Coiteuxs’ businesses, which were individually charged in the case, according to court records.
Racing Performance Northwest pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Air Act and RPM Motors and Sales pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act, prosecutors said.
Attorneys representing the companies didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment.
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