Law

December 2, 2013 — The following was released by the Southern District of Florida U.S. Attorney's Office:

Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Otha Easley, Acting Special Agent in Charge, NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement, and Edward Grace, Deputy Assistant Director, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Office of Law Enforcement, announced that Richard Perrin, 80, formerly of Romulus, Michigan, pled guilty yesterday in federal District Court in Key West for conspiring with others to transport, sell, receive, acquire, and purchase fish and wildlife, Sea Fans (Gorgonia flabellum and Gorgonia ventalina), ornamental tropical fish, sharks, and alligators (Alligator mississippiensis), with a fair market value in excess of $350.00, knowing the wildlife was taken, possessed, transported, sold, and intended to be sold in violation of the laws and regulations of the State of Florida, in violation of Title 16, United States Code, Sections 3372(a)(2)(A), 3372(a)(4), and 3373(d)(1) and (2), all in violation of Title 18,United States Code, Section 371.

United States District Court Judge Jose E. Martinez, who accepted Perrin’s plea, set sentencing in the matter for March 25, 2014 at 2:00 p.m. in Key West. Perrin faces a maximum sentence of five years in prison, three years of supervised release, and a criminal fine of up to $250,000. He also faces forfeiture of the vehicle used in the commission of the Lacey Act Violations. Perrin’s co-defendant, Joseph Franko, 35, also of Romulus, entered a guilty plea to the same charge on November 25, 2013 and faces the same possible sentence and fine.

Read the full press release at the U.S. Department of Justice 

December 1, 2013 — Fishermen have always braved bad weather and unstable economic conditions, John Lees of Marlees Seafood said. He never expected a court dispute to upend his livelihood. Lees said he was fighting the lawsuit to preserve his reputation in the tight-knit world of New Bedford, where he owns four scallop boats.

Three years ago, John Lees was looking to expand his seafood business in New Bedford. Prices for scallops were skyrocketing and Lees sensed the time was ripe to make a big move.

So it appeared fortuitous when, seemingly out of nowhere, a Lithuanian business tycoon offered to buy a majority stake in Lee’s company, Marlees Seafood, which the veteran fisherman founded 27 years ago out of the back of his car.

“They told me they wanted to buy up the entire industry,” Lees recalled of the offer from Julius Numavicius, whose family members are owners of a holding company with retail interests throughout Europe. “I was looking at becoming a big part of something. This was going to give me the scale that I believed I needed.”

Instead, what seemed like a promising marriage has soured into a dock fight.

Numavicius is accusing Lees of bilking him out of more than $22 million, according to papers filed in US District Court in Boston in October. Numavicius alleges that Lees, who remained Marlees’s chief executive for two years after the September 2010 deal, inflated Marlees’s value at the time of the sale, engaged in a series of schemes and kickbacks and secretly competed with Marlees by investing in friends’ businesses.

Lees expressly denied the allegations in Numavicius’s lawsuit. And he has countered with his own court actions, including a motion asking the judge to dismiss the lawsuit. Separately Lees filed a lawsuit in Suffolk Superior Court seeking $6.3 million in damages from Numavicius for their falling out. That case is in arbitration.

Read the full story at The Boston Globe 

 

 

 

November 26, 2013 — A federal judge in Minneapolis on Monday threw out the indictments of five American Indians arrested in a major fish poaching case on Indian reservations in northern Minnesota, saying the men were protected under an 1837 treaty.

The decision by Judge John Tunheim of Minneapolis appears to be directly opposite to rulings by U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle of St. Paul on Oct. 31, creating a legal tangle that will likely keep attorneys and the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals busy well into 2014.

The contradictory decisions were described by several court observers as very unusual.

Former federal prosecutor Paul Murphy, who headed the criminal division of the U.S. attorney’s office from 1995 to 2005, said he could not recall two federal justices issuing opposing decisions in the same district and growing out of the same undercover investigation.

“Normally, in related cases, the court assigns all of them to one judge …,” Murphy said.

In a strongly worded memorandum filed Monday, attorneys for two Red Lake Indians whose indictments were not dismissed by Kyle — Thomas Sumner, 55, and Brian Holthusen, 48 — appealed to Kyle to reconsider his position in light of Tunheim’s “careful analysis.”

Read the full story at the Star Tribune 

 

 

BALTIMORE — November 22, 2013 — It’s a poaching case that could bring prison time.  That’s unusual but then the charges are substantial.

Alex DeMetrick has more on the striped bass that’s landed four watermen in federal court.

The charges follow a four-year investigation and tens of thousands of pounds of striped bass allegedly poached from the Chesapeake.

Records must be kept to catch, move and sell seafood.

It’s especially true for Maryland watermen catching striped bass.

Because of strict quotas, accurate numbers are critical to protect spawning stocks.

Four watermen are facing federal charges because of what they allegedly did not report.

“What this is basically saying is more fish were taken than we thought were taken,” said Michael Luisi, DNR Fisheries.

The affidavit alleges the conspiracy worked like this: a defendant would report 1,547 pounds of striped bass to DNR while actually catching 15,310 pounds.

Between 2007 and 2011, that unreported catch totaled almost 186,000 pounds, bringing in nearly $500,000.

“This is essentially stealing from other people trying to make a living,” Luisi said.

Watch the video and read the full story at CBS Baltimore

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — November 25, 2013 — Indictments against five people accused of poaching walleye and other fish from two northern Minnesota reservations and selling them on the black market were dismissed Monday by a federal judge who said an 1837 treaty with the Chippewa Indians protects their rights to fish on tribal lands.

U.S. District Judge John Tunheim wrote that Congress hasn't abolished fishing rights outlined in the treaty, which guarantees hunting and fishing privileges to tribal members on reservations. As a result, he said, prosecuting the defendants would violate treaty rights.

He also said the rights outlined in the treaty preclude prosecution under federal wildlife protection laws.

The five defendants were among 10 people indicted in federal court in April with transporting and selling fish illegally. Of the remaining defendants, one has pleaded guilty and cases against four are pending.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer 

 

November 21, 2013 — Four commercial fishermen were indicted by a federal grand jury after harvesting and selling striped bass from the Chesapeake Bay, according to the Department of Justice.

Four commercial fishermen were indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday after harvesting and selling striped bass from the Chesapeake Bay, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Michael D. Hayden, Jr., William J. Lednum, Kent Sadler and Daniel Murphy carried out a multi-year conspiracy in which they harvested tens of thousands of pounds of striped bass on the Bay, according to court documents.

Read the full story at the Baltimore Sun

DURHAM, N.H. — November 21, 2013 — A New Hampshire fisherman has been charged with possessing 49 stolen lobster traps.

The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department says 21-year-old Kyle Basoukas of Bedford was arrested on Nov. 11 after a three-month investigation.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at Boston.com

November 20, 2013 — When anglers talk of the fishing being “hot,” that’s usually a good thing. But not if it’s striped bass offshore this winter.

The Coast Guard said Wednesday it will step up efforts this winter to stop illegal fishing for striped bass in federal waters, where the prized fish often seen in New Jersey’s bays and surf move offshore in colder weather.

Striped bass came under strict conservation rules after the fishery collapsed in the early 1980s, and one of those measures has been the ban on catching or possessing the fish in federal waters — between three miles off the beach and 200 miles offshore, also known as the exclusive economic zone or EEZ.

The longstanding rule still frequently is misunderstood or even ignored, so much so that last winter, the Coast Guard mounted Operation Striper Swiper, which frequently boarded and inspected commercial and recreational boats off Virginia and Maryland.

Fishermen caught with illegal striped bass are subject to civil fines.

Read the full story at the Asbury Park Press

WASHINGTON– November 8, 2013 — Recreational fishing groups have filed a lawsuit in the D.C. District Court challenging a decision by the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to terminate a plan to protect river herring and shad in the Atlantic Ocean.

River herring play a keystone role in the river and coastal ocean ecosystem, serving as food for many other species of fish, marine mammals, and birds. (U.S. FWS)

Last June, the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council initiated an amendment (Amendment 15) to a fisheries management plan known as the Mackerel, Squid, and Butterfish Fishery Management Plan to recover depleted river herring (Alewife and Blueback) and shad (American and Hickory) populations. Serious concerns had been raised by scientists, managers, fishermen, conservation groups, and other members of the public because hundreds of thousands of river herring and shad are caught and killed in the mackerel, squid and butterfish fishery without any management plan or meaningful regulatory protections. Coast wide, populations of these fish have dwindled to historically low levels. Unfortunately, in October 2013, the Council and NMFS voted to terminate development of Amendment 15 and instead voted to establish a multi-year study group designed to operate outside of the legal mandates for U.S. fisheries management.

Read the full story at eNews Park Forest

ROCKLAND, Maine — November 9, 2013 — The FBI and local police are investigating threats against Linda Bean’s lobster business.

Details of the threats are not being released.

Rockland Police Chief Bruce Boucher said Saturday that there was follow-up investigative work done this week. He referred specific questions about the investigation to the FBI.

Read the full story from the Bangor Daily News