2 Defendants Plead Guilty in counterfeit pipe coupling scheme

1. In Washington, Hayden B. Greene. age 31 of Tulsa, Oklahoma and James Robert Roy, 42, of Tomball, Texas pleaded guilty to conspiring to manufacture and sell pipe couplings.
2. Both men pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Keith P. Ellison in Houston to one count of conspiracy to traffic in counterfeit goods and commit fraud.
3. They each are facing five years in prison and the sentencing is scheduled for November 5, 2009.
4. In their plea agreement, both Greene and Roy admitted that they conspired with another co-defendant in a counterfeiting scheme to manufacture and sell oilfield pipe couplings stamped with a certification mark owned and registered by the American Petroleum Institute, without a license or other authorization to do so.
5.According to the plea agreement, both Greene an Roy acknowledged that they 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.
6.The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Richard Green of the Criminal Divison's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section, with the assistance from Assistant U.S. Attorney Mark McIntyre of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas.
7. It is being investigated by the FBI's Houston Office.