Spokane Business Owner Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Violate the Clean Air Act and Stealing COVID-19 Relief Funds Publisher: U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of Washington Byline: Robert Curry Dateline: Spokane, Washington Date: 13 December 2024 Subjects: American Government , Crime, The Environment

Spokane, Washington - Vanessa R. Waldref, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Washington, announced today that Pavel Ivanovich Turlak, and his Spokane-based trucking companies; PT Express, LLC, Spokane Truck Service, LLC, and Pauls Trans, LLC pleaded guilty to conspiring to illegally violate Clean Air Act emissions controls and to fraudulently obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID-19 relief funding.  Turlak is scheduled to be sentenced on April 2, 2025, at 9:30 a.m. in Spokane, Washington.

Under the Clean Air Act, diesel trucks are required to maintain systems and components that limit harmful emissions of dangerous pollutants such as diesel particulates. Exposure to diesel exhaust can lead to serious health conditions like asthma and respiratory illnesses. Exposure also can worsen existing heart and lung disease, especially in children and the elderly. Heavy-duty diesel trucks are also required under the Clean Air Act to maintain an onboard-diagnostic system which monitors the functionality of the hardware emissions control components.  To ensure that the required emissions control systems are functioning properly, if the system detects that an emissions control component is not working, or has been removed, it will ultimately put the truck into what is known as “limp mode,” which limits the top speed to as low as 5 miles per hour.

Based on the plea agreement accepted by the court and information disclosed during court proceedings, between August 2017 and November 2023, Turlak purchased illegal “delete tune” files from Florida-based Ryan Hugh Milliken and his company, Hardaway Solutions, LLC. The files were designed to disable and defeat required emissions controls and monitoring systems. Turlak loaded the delete tunes into his own trucks used in his businesses, as well as trucks of co-conspirators who were customers of Spokane Truck Service, LLC. Milliken and Hardway Solutions, LLC pleaded guilty to violating the Clean Air Act in November 2024.

In addition to violating the Clean Air Act, Turlak also admitted to fraudulently obtaining hundreds of thousands of dollars in COVID-19 Relief funding. Between March 2020 and August 2021, Turlak falsely and fraudulently applied for and received more than $300,000 in federal funding that was designated to go to eligible small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. Turlak and his businesses were not eligible to receive this funding due to their ongoing participation in a conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act; yet, Turlak and his businesses falsely certified that they were eligible for this funding.

As a condition of the plea agreement, Turlak and his companies entered a compliance agreement to ensure that their trucks protect the public health and comply with Clean Air Act requirements going forward.

“Mr. Turlak pursued a business of profiting from pollution. By installing emission defeat devices in his own vehicles and the vehicles of others, he sought an illegal competitive advantage and evaded important safeguards designed to protect public health and the environment,” stated U.S Attorney Waldref. “Families in Eastern Washington deserve to breathe cleaner air, and I am grateful for our partners on our Environmental Task Force who are committed to protecting our community. Working together we will continue to ensure a healthy, high quality of life and keep our region safe and strong.”

This case was investigated by the EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division with assistance from EPA’s National Enforcement Investigations Center, the Small Business Administration, Office of Inspector General, and the Spokane Police Department.  Assistant United States Attorneys Dan Fruchter and Jacob E. Brooks, and Special Assistant United States Attorney Gwendolyn Russell, are prosecuting the case.

2:24-cr-00057-TOR