January 13, 2025 — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit against Omega Protein and its fishing operation in the Chesapeake Bay Ocean Harvesters that claimed they were controlled by a foreign company.
The lawsuit was filed three years ago in the Southern District of New York, where a judge dismissed the claim earlier this month. It was filed under the False Claims Act, which permits people to sue on behalf of the federal government if they allege that the government is being defrauded. However the government opted not to participate in the lawsuit.
Cooke Seafood of New Brunswick, Canada purchased Omega in 2017. The lawsuit claimed that the owners of Omega and Ocean Harvesters were Canadian citizens and controlled the Bay operation.
Company spokesman Ben Landry said that was shown to be false in the more than 100 pages of documents filed as required during Cooke’s purchase transaction.
“The owners are U.S.-born. They’re Americans citizens, and it’s a U.S. company headquartered in Virginia, and so hopefully this puts that argument to bed,” Landry said. “They were born in southeast Georgia, and they have full citizenship to own U.S. companies and property.”