Montauk fisherman Christopher Winkler

Tag Archives: Montauk fisherman Christopher Winkler

Small town fisherman harpooned on federal charges for catch that’s legal in other states: lawyer

October 13, 2023 Mid Atlantic, National

The 63-year-old captain of a Montauk, New York, fishing trawler has been convicted of federal conspiracy and fraud charges for violating local fishing rules that his lawyers say are outdated, wasteful and wouldn’t be a crime in other states. A federal jury found Christopher Winkler, who owns the 45-foot trawler named New Age that is based on Long Island’s East End, guilty of five counts last week – two each of mail fraud and obstruction of justice and one more for criminal conspiracy for an overfishing plot that racked up nearly $1 million in proceeds. The problem is, according to his defense, if Winkler had caught the fish in neighboring New Jersey, there likely wouldn’t have been a crime at all. Photos, >>click to read<< 07:53

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Federal Jury Convicts Montauk Fisherman

October 6, 2023 Mid Atlantic

A federal jury convicted a Montauk fisherman on Wednesday of falsifying records in order to sell fluke and black sea bass in quantities that vastly exceeded legal limits. Christopher Winkler, captain of the trawler New Age, was found guilty in federal court in Central Islip on five counts of conspiracy, mail fraud, and obstruction of justice for filing false reports to federal regulators. Bryan and Asa Gosman, both of Montauk, were also initially charged, but the cousins, who are among the owners of Gosman’s Dock in Montauk, cooperated with the prosecution and testified against Mr. Winkler. Each pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and were fined. Richard Levitt, an attorney representing Mr. Winkler, said in an email on Wednesday that Mr. Winkler will appeal the conviction. A sentencing date has not been set, he said, nor have sentencing guidelines been determined. >>click to read<< 07:56

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Superseding Indictment Charges New York Fisherman with Conspiracy, Fraud and Obstruction

January 26, 2022 Mid Atlantic, National

A federal grand jury in the Eastern District of New York unsealed a superseding indictment charging a fisherman with both conspiracy and substantive charges in connection with a scheme to illegally overharvest fluke and black sea bass. Christopher Winkler, 61, of Montauk, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail fraud, to obstruct NOAA through the falsification of fishing logs, and to unlawfully frustrate NOAA’s efforts at regulating federal fisheries. The superseding indictment alleges that between May 2014 and February 2017, Winkler, as captain of the F/V New Age, went on at least 220 fishing trips where he caught fluke or black sea bass in excess of applicable trip limits. >click to read< 16:55

An indictment is merely an allegation and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

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Operation One-Way Chandelier – Two members of Gosman family plead guilty in over-quota fish plot

November 18, 2021 Mid Atlantic, National

Two members of the Gosman family pleaded guilty on Thursday to one count each of criminal conspiracy for their role, and that of their Montauk company, in an alleged plot to buy over-quota fish from a local trawler captain,,, Bryan and Asa Gosman pleaded guilty to the single conspiracy count,,, A Montauk fisherman also named in the case, Christopher Winkler, has pleaded not guilty. Peter Smith, a Northport attorney for Winkler, said the Montauk trawler-boat captain of the New Age “maintains his innocence.” >click to read< – Gosman’s Market Owners Admit 250K Fish Fraud – The indictments were part of Operation One-Way Chandelier, an ongoing multi-year investigation into fisheries fraud on Long Island being led by NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement. >click to read< 17:47

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Ocean Resource Privatization

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The New England groundfish debacle (Part III): who or what is at fault? Nils E. Stolpe/FishNet

It took me a while to decide how to most accurately describe the situation that has been visited upon the New England fishing communities that are and since colonial times have been dependent on the groundfish fisheries.

NILS STOLPE: The New England groundfish debacle (Part IV): Is cutting back harvest really the answer?

While it’s a fact that’s hardly ever acknowledged, the assumption in fisheries management is that if the population of a stock of fish isn’t at some arbitrary level, it’s because of too much fishing. Hence the term “overfished.” Hence the mandated knee jerk reaction of the fisheries managers to not enough fish; cut back on fishing. What of other factors? They don’t count. It’s all about fishing, because fishing is all that the managers can control; it’s their Maslow’s Hammer. When it comes to the oceans it seems as if it’s about all that the industry connected mega-foundations that support the anti-fishing ENGOs with hundreds of millions of dollars a year in “donations” are interested in controlling. Read the article here

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