Four men charged for allegedly conducting fraudulent emissions testing on vehicles

OREM, Utah (ABC4) — Four individuals have been arrested and charged after allegedly conducting fraudulent vehicle emissions tests, allowing cars that would have otherwise failed to pass.

Matthew Lerud, Christian Valdovinos, Benjamin Nielsen, and Diego Alonso Lazo have all been charged after the Orem police Department found that they were allegedly falsifying emissions tests while employed at Cleggs Auto Care in Orem.

Lerud, Valdovinos, and Nielsen have each been charged with five counts of violating the air conservation act with false statement or inaccurate devices (a third-degree felony), while Lazo Olivos is facing six counts.

The four individuals have not been taken into custody but have been summoned for an initial court appearance in December.

Case History

According to court documents, the Utah County Health Department (UCoHD) alerted Orem Police Department (OPD) about the potential fraud after reviewing multiple records. After further investigation, they saw that the four technicians were allegedly conducting emissions tests using the ‘clean connect method.’

The ‘clean connect method’ is when a technician connects the emissions analyzer machine to a vehicle that will pass the emissions test, while pretending it was connected to the vehicle that was brought in for an emissions test and that won’t pass a true emissions test.

An emissions analyzer machine typically reads a vehicle’s digital Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) and prints that on a report, while also requiring the technician to manually input a VIN into the machine. This verifies that the machine is connected to the proper vehicle.

When a machine is connected to an older vehicle, it does not generate an electronic VIN, meaning that the technicians can manually enter any VIN.

Investigators found that over two hundred emissions reports from Clegg’s were missing electronic VINs, but that the vehicles those reports were conducted on were new enough to display electronic VINs on an emissions analyzer machine.

Reportedly, the employee IDs that were used for each fraudulent report were linked to the four co-defendants.

Based on those fraudulent reports and the connected employee IDs, Diego Alonso Lazo performed a clean connect on approximately 179 vehicles from January through September 15, 2025.

Benjamin Nielsen performed a clean connect on approximately 68 vehicles, Matthew Lerud conducted clean connects on 18 vehicles, and Christian Valdovinos performed clean connects on ten vehicles.

This allowed the technicians to ‘pass’ vehicles’ emissions and bypass needed repairs. However, several of the vehicles had failed tests at different emissions testing stations and still needed repairs, despite ‘passing’ emissions.

Additionally, an undercover operation was conducted which confirmed that at least one Clegg’s technicians conducted a fraudulent test in exchange for cash from the customer. According to court documents, it is believed that the four co-defendants would ask for a cash amount from customers to disguise the fraudulent process.

Reportedly, the codefendants likely profited a large amount of money over the course of several years.