Justin Taylor, 30, of Collins, Georgia, has pled guilty in U.S. District Court to charges related to tampering with emissions controls on commercial logging equipment and tax fraud. The charges include Conspiracy to Tamper with a Monitoring Device, and Fraud and False Statement, according to Jill E. Steinberg, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Georgia.
Taylor faces a potential statutory sentence of up to five years in prison, significant financial penalties, and a period of supervised release upon completion of any prison term. There is no possibility of parole in the federal system.
From January 1, 2018, to January 20, 2021, Taylor operated from his home and remote job sites, using a high-powered computer to perform emission-control “deletes” for over 200 diesel engine owners. This service, which disabled the required electronic monitoring devices under the Clean Air Act, was charged at $2,000 per job. Taylor earned more than $1.2 million but reported only $166,853 in income…