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.

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Justice, +1-202-514-2008, TDD: +1-202-514-1888