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Fomer Company Vice President Convicted of Conspiring to Falsify Data on Millions of Gallons of Regormulated Gasoline
Release Date: 04/18/2003
Contact Information:
John Millett 202-564-7842/[email protected]
(04/18/03) On April 11, 2002, a former vice president of a multinational petroleum products testing company was convicted of conspiring to violate the federal Clean Air Act (CAA) and a variety of fraud statutes, as well as for obstructing justice. Thomas M. Hayes, 51, of Rockaway Township, N.J., formerly vice president of Western Hemisphere operations at Saybolt Inc., was convicted of conspiracy to violate the CAA, to make false statements to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and to commit mail fraud and obstruction of justice. Hayes was acquitted of a second charge in the indictment for obstructing justice. Hayes and his co-conspirators routinely inflated the oxygen content of its customers’ reformulated gasoline in reports that were submitted to the EPA, according to the indictment. Saybolt allegedly falsified its data, reporting results that were not actually obtained in the lab to generate higher oxygen figures. In some instances the falsified reports enabled refiners and importers to sell RFG that did not meet minimum government requirements. In other instances, sellers received undeserved “credits” for selling RFG that purportedly exceeded minimum environmental specifications. Hayes now faces a maximum statutory prison term of five years and $250,000 on the conspiracy count.
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