Biodiesel RIN scammer Rodney Hailey found guilty on all counts
June 25, 2012
BY Ron Kotrba
Clean Green Fuel LLC owner Rodney Hailey, on trial the past week in federal court for wire fraud, money laundering and violating the Clean Air Act by generating $9 million worth of fraudulent biodiesel renewable identification numbers (RINs), was found guilty on all charges June 25.
“The sad thing is that Mr. Hailey’s greed has caused immeasurable damage to an industry and a government policy that are working for the public good—to improve our environment, create U.S. jobs and boost our energy security,” said Ben Evans, National Biodiesel Board spokesman. “Thousands of people who go to work every day in the biodiesel industry were harmed by this.”
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RIN fraud by Hailey—and at least two other companies alleged to have committed similar offenses—has locked up the biodiesel RIN market, causing significant damage to small producers across the U.S. Reports over the past week indicate Hailey’s defense was everybody knew the credits were fake—and they bought them anyway.
Hailey faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison for wire fraud, 10 years for money laundering and two years for violating the Clean Air Act.
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“It’s costing biodiesel producers thousands of dollars in added expenses and in some cases putting their businesses at risk of failing,” Evans said. “And it’s costing well-intentioned petroleum companies as well. Mr. Hailey came in and defrauded all of them, and we’re happy that he won’t have the opportunity to do that again. Moving forward, the biodiesel industry is coming together around common-sense safeguards that will prevent this kind of thing from happening in the future.”
Less than a month ago, Genscape launched the NBB-supported RIN Integrity Network, a program designed to eliminate fraud and restore confidence in the biodiesel market.
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