Long Beach smog-check stations linked to inspection-cheating ring, federal prosecutors say

Federal officials say they’ve charged a dozen auto shop owners and technicians who were running a sophisticated cheating ring in Southern California to scam the state’s smog-inspection system.

An indictment unsealed Thursday in Sacramento federal court charges the defendants with making a device to cheat smog checks and training shop operators to use it, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The scam, which started in 2015, let the defendants make more money off of each smog check than if they had performed a legitimate diagnostic, prosecutors alleged. They said a normal smog inspection costs on average $50 to $60, but the conspirators in this case charged between $120 and $300 for fraudulent ones.

One of the defendants — Jeremy Earls, 37, of Lakewood — owned two smog stations in Long Beach, authorities said. Another — Thong Truong, 40, of San Jose — also owned two smog-check stations in Long Beach, according to the indictment.

Smog checks are typically performed by plugging smog inspection equipment, known as a Data Acquisition Device, into a vehicle’s On-Board Diagnostics port. To cheat the smog tests, the conspirators instead plugged the smog inspection equipment into a device called “OBDNators,” according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

The OBDNator would then make it look like a vehicle had passed the smog check regardless of the true condition of a vehicle’s emission control system. While the defendants’ roles in the conspiracy varied, all of them used the OBDNator devices, according to the DOJ.

According to court documents, Los Angeles-area smog station owner Hossam “Sam” Hemdan, 54, of Hawthorne, developed the OBDNator device and its accompanying software. He’s accused of selling the devices for as much as $18,000, the DOJ alleges.

Federal prosecutors allege that in order to make a car look like it had passed the test, the defendants and others maintained collections of “clean” vehicle profiles that the OBDNator could pass along to the state agency that tracked smog checks.

During the conspiracy, some of the defendants organized classes to teach how to use the OBDNator and communicated through chat groups about how to avoid detection by authorities, the DOJ contends.

The latest version of the OBDNator could pass a vehicle without it even being present at the smog station, authorities said.

Hemdan is charged with conspiracy and making false statements pursuant to the Clean Air Act.

In addition to Earls and Truong, the DOJ named other co-defendants including,

• Javier Salguero, 47, of Inglewood, who owns several smog shops, including one in Bell and two in Maywood
• Oscar Gomez, 36, of Rancho Cucamonga, who ran a school for automotive technicians in Rancho Cucamonga
• Guillermo Tovar, 35, of Fontana, who worked at multiple smog stations
• Arwa Harb, 53, of Redondo Beach, who owned smog stations, including one in Wilmington and one in South Gate
• Michael Nguyen, 38, of National City, who operated out of a smog station in Spring Valley.
• Yehia Harb, 36, of Hawthorne, who owned and controlled a smog shop in Hawthorne
• Khaled Hamdan, 31, of Hawthorne, who worked at businesses owned by Hemdan

City News Service and Staff Writer Jeremiah Dobruck contributed to this report.