FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                               CONTACT:  CHANNING PHILLIPS NOVEMBER 6, 2007                                    PHONE: (202) 514-6933   Three Members of Business Software Piracy Ring Plead Guilty

(Alexandria, Virginia) - Three residents of Lakeland, Florida have pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell more than $5 million in counterfeit copyrighted software, Alice S. Fisher, Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice; Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Joseph Persichini, Jr., Assistant Director in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Washington Field Office, announced today. Maurice A. Robberson, 48, and his brother Thomas K. Robberson, 54, pled guilty yesterday before United States District Judge Claude M. Hilton. Thomas Robberson pled guilty to a single count of copyright infringement, while Maurice Robberson pled guilty to conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and trafficking in counterfeit goods as well as a substantive count of copyright infringement.
They are both scheduled to be sentenced on March 7, 2008. Alton Lee Grooms, 56, had previously pled guilty to conspiracy on October 19, 2007. He will be sentenced on January 18, 2008.

On August 16, 2007, a federal grand jury indicted the three on charges of conspiring to violate the copyright and trademark laws, and some of the individuals with five additional substantive counts. The fourth member of the conspiracy, Danny Ferrer, pled guilty to conspiracy and copyright infringement charges on June15, 2006 and is currently serving 72 months in federal prison.

According to court documents, from late 2002 through October 2005, these individuals conspired to sell more than $5 million in counterfeit copyrighted software from companies such as Adobe Systems Inc., Autodesk Inc., and Macromedia Inc. at discount prices. The conspiracy used Internet websites that included BUYSUSA.COM, CDSalesUSA.com, AmericanSoftWareSales.com, TheDealDepot.net, and BestValueShoppe.com. The counterfeit software was manufactured by members of the conspiracy and included labels that featured trademarks and service marks of the legitimate software companies.

After receiving complaints from software copyright holders about BuysUSA.com, an undercover FBI agent made a number of purchases of business and utility software. After further investigation, an array of related websites were discovered. In October 2005, seven search warrants were executed in Florida by law enforcement on residences and businesses associated with the conspiracy.

The investigation of these individuals was conducted by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Washington Field Office. Additional investigative support was provided by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Tampa Field Office of the FBI The Business Software Alliance, a trade association which represents leading computer software companies, provided significant assistance to the investigation. Assistant United States Attorneys Jay V. Prabhu and Edmund P. Power, and Tyler Newby, Trial Attorney, Computer Crime & Intellectual Property Section, prosecuted the cases on behalf of the government.