Two years before the Commerce Department inspector general began investigating the federal fisheries law enforcement system — a probe that uncovered enough problems to cost Dale J. Jones, the long-time director, his badge — an internal investigation found nothing amiss.
According to a leaked e-mail provided to the Gloucester Times, the internal investigation was spurred by anonymous complaints and a whistle-blowing agent serving under Jones.
Since then, a six-month 2009 investigation by Inspector General Todd Zinser found that Jones exercised inadequate control over his agents and allowed the cadre based in the Northeast headquarters in Gloucester to target and harass fishermen and businesses, extracting fines for minor offenses. The IG's report also cited Jones' staffing of NOAA's Office of Law Enforcement with mostly criminal investigators and agents even though their work involved mostly administrative violations.
Later reports found that agents also had largely uncontrolled access to the Asset Forfeiture Fund, into which went nearly $100 million over a 4 1/2-year period, and out of which was drawn close to $50 million via 82,000 transactions.
The fund was not audited before the IG's investigation and the auditing firm retained by the IG exhausted its commission without ascertaining for sure where the millions went.
Read the complete story from The Gloucester Times.