Washington man gets prison for overharvesting sea cucumbers, must pay $1.5M

The owner of a Washington seafood company has been sentenced to two years in prison for overharvesting sea cucumbers and must pay $1.5 million in restitution — the second large bust of illegal sea-cucumber trade in the U.S. West in just over a year. Hoon Namkoong, 62, was also sentenced Friday to three years of post-prison supervision. He pleaded guilty earlier this year in U.S. District Court in Seattle to underreporting the number of sea cucumbers he bought from tribal and nontribal fisheries in the Puget Sound by nearly 250,000 pounds between 2014 and 2016. His company, Orient Seafood Production, then sold them to seafood buyers in Asia and the U.S. >click to read<10:09

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