The U.S. subsidiary of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles has a settlement agreement with the U.S. Dept. of Justice concerning a criminal investigation into “a multi-year scheme to mislead U.S. regulators and customers” -according to assistant attorney general Kenneth Polite – by evading emissions requirements for more than 100,000 EcoDiesel V-6 engines installed in 2014-2016 Ram pickup trucks and Jeep SUVs. The Stellantis holding agreed to plead guilty to a criminal conspiracy charge, pay a fine of $96.1 million, and forfeit $203.6 million of revenue reported from the affected products.
A U.S. District Court in Detroit will pronounce the sentence in a hearing July 18.
According to the Justice Department, FCA US LLC installed deceptive software in the emissions systems of the engines during the federal test procedures, to avoid regulatory scrutiny and fraudulently help the vehicles meet diesel emissions standards.
In the settlement, the Justice Dept. will place FCA US LLC on probation for three years, and the automaker must conduct a series of three reviews of its compliance with the Clean Air Act and inspection and testing procedures, and report those findings to DoJ.
FCA US already has paid a $311 million civil penalty and over $183 million as compensation to over 63,000 customers in a class-action lawsuit.
In separate criminal cases, three FCA US LLC employees have been indicted for conspiracy to violate the Clean Air Act and defraud the government.
