Defendants Sentenced To Prison For Role In Counterfeit Pipe Coupling Scheme

WASHINGTON, Nov. 5 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Hayden B. Greene, 32, of Tulsa, Okla., and James Robert Roy, 42, of Tomball, Texas, were sentenced today to 30 months and 15 months in prison, respectively, for conspiring to manufacture and sell counterfeit pipe couplings, announced Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson of the Southern District of Texas.

Greene and Roy were each also sentenced to three years of supervised release following their respective prison terms and ordered to pay $10,901 in restitution, jointly and severally with their co-defendant. Greene and Roy each pleaded guilty on Aug. 12, 2009, before U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison in Houston to one count of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods and commit fraud.

In their plea agreements, Greene and Roy admitted that they and a co-defendant conspired in a counterfeiting scheme to manufacture and sell oilfield pipe couplings stamped with a certification mark owned and registered by the American Petroleum Institute (API), without a license or authorization to do so.

API's certification program is a quality-control program designed to insure against injury and catastrophic loss from substandard, unsafe products. The API monogram certifies that products and equipment used in the exploration and production of petroleum and natural gas meet certain API standards, specifications and recommended practices. Couplings that do not meet the API standards are sold for limited service applications at substantially lower prices than API-certified products. Only manufacturers licensed by API after meeting strict quality control standards, and who are subject to continued monitoring by API, are authorized to manufacture and sell products containing an API certification mark.

According to their plea agreements, Greene and Roy acknowledged that they and their co-defendant not only manufactured and sold couplings containing an API certification mark without a license, but profited at the expense of customers by manufacturing many of those couplings using substandard materials.

Greene and Roy's pleas are the second and third pleas arising from this prosecution. On June 24, 2009, Ronald Adams was sentenced to eight months in prison and three years of supervised release for his role in the scheme.

This case is being investigated by the FBI's Houston Field Office and is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Richard Green of the Criminal Division's Computer Crime and Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark McIntyre of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas.