Raymond Bradley Pearce, Software Piracy, Oklahoma 2024

Tuttle, OK – In a shocking turn of events, three individuals have been sentenced for their roles in a massive $88 million business telephone system software license piracy scheme.

Raymond Bradley ‘Brad’ Pearce, 48, a computer system administrator from Tuttle, Oklahoma, was sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to forfeit $4 million. Pearce’s wife, Dusti O. Pearce, 46, was sentenced to one year and a day in prison and ordered to forfeit $4 million in June. Jason M. Hines, 44, of Caldwell, New Jersey, was sentenced to one year and six months in prison and an additional 18 months of home confinement, and ordered to forfeit $2 million.

The three defendants have agreed to pay restitution, with Brad Pearce set to pay $17 million, Dusti Pearce $10 million, and Hines more than $5 million. The court will hold a separate restitution hearing in a few weeks to determine the details of the restitution order.

According to court documents, Brad and Dusti Pearce conspired with Hines to commit wire fraud in a scheme that involved generating and selling unauthorized Avaya Direct International (ADI) software licenses. The ADI software licenses were used to unlock features and functionalities of a popular telephone system product called ‘IP Office’ used by thousands of companies around the world.

Avaya Holdings Corporation, a multinational business communications company headquartered in California, sold IP Office to many midsize and small businesses in the United States and abroad. To unlock features and functionalities of IP Office, such as voicemail or telephones, customers had to purchase software licenses generated by Avaya from an authorized Avaya distributor or reseller.

Brad Pearce, a long-time customer service employee at Avaya, used his system administrator privileges to generate tens of thousands of ADI software license keys that he sold to Hines and other customers, who in turn sold them to resellers and end users around the world. The retail value of each Avaya software license ranged from under $100 to thousands of dollars.

The scheme operated for years, with the Pearces and Hines reaping millions of dollars from the sale of pirated software licenses. To hide the nature and source of the money, the Pearces funneled their illegal gains through a PayPal account created under a false name to multiple bank accounts, and then transferred the money to investment and bank accounts. They also purchased large quantities of gold bullion and other valuable items.

Hines, who operated Direct Business Services International (DBSI), a New Jersey-based business communications systems provider and a de-authorized Avaya reseller, bought ADI software license keys from Brad and Dusti Pearce and then sold them to resellers and end users around the world for significantly below the wholesale price.

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