August 20, 2012 — A special magistrate for the US district Court in New York has recommended that Arnold Bengis, et al, who pled guilty to Lacey Act violations of illegally importing South African lobster tails, pay an additional $54,883,550 in restitution to the South African government.
The case has been in litigation for over a decade. After a guilty plea and an initial payment of over $7 million to South Africa, the defendents argued that they should not be liable for restitution for illegal lobsters for the period from 1987 to 1999, since the plea agreement was for the period 1999-2001 only.
An earlier court ruling had agreed, saying it was impossible to calculate a proper restitution for the other years. This was overturned on appeal, and remanded back to a special magistrate at the district court.
His opinion was that in fact an amount could be determined, based on the market value of the lobsters sold, under the theory that the South African government could have siezed the illegal lobsters and sold them itself.
Accordingly, United States Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck ruled defendants Arnold Bengis, Jeffery Noll, and David Bengis have to pay an additional $54.9 million in restitution, the largest single award ever made under the Lacey Act.
This ruling will have a significant deterrent impact on IUU fishing, says the Pew Foundation.
Pew applauds the court for recognizing the severity of this crime and appropriately ordering such a high penalty.'
These defendants stole an environmental asset from South Africa, and it is only fair that they pay the country back for that theft. This unprecedented ruling shows that the U.S. can and will take concerted action to stop illegal fishing and bring those U.S. citizens engaging in it to justice, whether it has occurred within or outside of U.S. waters.'
The court ruled that the restitution was valid regardless of whether the lobsters were in fact shipped to the US or not. Some of the lobsters were sold to Hong Kong, but most of them came to the U.S.
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