Trucking Company Owner Sentenced to 9 Years in Prison and Fined $3 Million for Emissions Tampering.

      Freightliner / Whiskey Dix Big Truck Repair

      Federal prosecutors continue their campaign against companies that distribute emissions defeat devices and the individuals who install them. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri announced that a 55-year-old business owner has been sentenced to 108 months in prison and required to pay $3 million in restitution for various crimes, including bank fraud and 13 breaches of the Clean Air Act.

      Christopher Lee Carroll, a resident of Missouri, was found guilty of three counts of bank fraud, three counts of providing false information to a financial institution, one count of conspiracy to infringe the Clean Air Act, 13 breaches of the Clean Air Act, and two counts of witness intimidation, as stated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Most of these offenses reportedly began in April 2020.

      According to court officials, Carroll and his business partner, George Reed, operated a timeshare exit company named Square One Group during the COVID-19 pandemic. They submitted a fraudulent application for a $1.2 million Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan and falsely stated that their respective spouses owned the company to conceal Carroll's status as a felon on parole. The loan was approved, but instead of using the funds to support unemployed employees and cover their health insurance, Carroll established a trucking company called Whiskey Dix.

      The court later revealed that Carroll and Reed applied for and received a second loan of $1.6 million, pocketing around $660,000 in “owner draws.” This is where the Clean Air Act violations come into play: Whiskey Dix removed emissions control equipment from its fleet of diesel trucks to lower fuel costs. When legal issues arose, Carroll asked an employee to "take the fall" for his actions and intimidated another employee by threatening to stop covering his legal fees if he communicated with federal authorities, according to court records. He followed through with that threat.

      The FBI and the EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division investigated the case. As for the 70-year-old Reed, he pleaded guilty to bank fraud in September 2022. He was ordered to pay $3 million in restitution and is set to be sentenced to time served in January 2025.

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