November 3, 2013 — The Department of Health and Human Services has launched a special welfare fraud investigation that targets Maine’s approximately 500 licensed elver fishermen, some of whom have earned up to $100,000 a year for their catch over the past few seasons.
The agency, in cooperation with the Department of Marine Resources and Maine Revenue Services, is reviewing catch records and tax filings from 2010 to 2013 to determine whether any elver fishermen who received welfare benefits have failed to report income. It’s unclear what motivated the special investigation or how much money the state is devoting to the initiative, which is described in official records obtained by the Maine Sunday Telegram.
The records disclose that the three agencies prepared a memorandum of understanding formalizing an agreement to share information. The Telegram has requested a copy of the agreement under the Freedom of Access Act, together with other records related to the project, from all three agencies. But state officials have so far refused to release any additional information. They assert that some of what the newspaper is seeking should be kept secret because it is “intelligence and investigative record” information, “confidential tax records” or “confidential fishery reports.”
DHHS asked the newspaper to destroy the documents that refer to the investigation, saying the material was mistakenly disclosed and should have been redacted because it is confidential. DHHS also asked the Telegram not to publish a story about the initiative, which the agency has dubbed the “Elver Project.”
Read the full story at the Portland Press Herald