Tag Archives: pleads guilty
Commercial Fisherman Pleads Guilty to Income Tax Evasion
A crew member on commercial fishing vessels operating out of New Bedford pleaded guilty today to evading nearly $300,000 in federal income taxes. Rodolfo Membreno, 49, of Fall River, pleaded guilty to one count of evading and defeating taxes before U.S. District Judge Richard G. Stearns. Judge Stearns scheduled sentencing for May 15, 2024. Membreno was indicted by a federal grand jury in April 2023. From 2013 through 2021, Membreno earned more than $1.3 million working as a commercial fisherman. During the calendar years 2013 through 2019 Membreno failed to file federal income tax returns. more, >>click to read<< 07:25
Massachusetts Commercial Fisherman Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion
A Massachusetts man pleaded guilty today to evading taxes on income he earned as a commercial fisherman. According to court documents and statements made in court, John Doe of New Bedford, Massachusetts, worked as a commercial fisherman operating primarily out of the Port of New Bedford. Despite receiving approximately $1.9 million in income between 2012 and 2021, Doe did not file tax returns with the IRS and did not pay taxes on the income he earned. To conceal his earnings from the IRS, Doe cashed his paychecks from fishing companies at check-cashing businesses and then used the cash to fund his personal lifestyle. He also used stolen identities to cash the checks. In total, Doe caused a tax loss to the IRS of approximately $520,415. >>click to read<< 13:57
Canadian Company Pleads Guilty to Illegally Selling Harp Seal Oil in the United States
FeelGood Natural Health Stores Ltd. (FeelGood) pleaded guilty today to one count of violating the Lacey Act by knowingly transporting and selling harp seal oil capsules in violation of the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA). According to the plea agreement, FeelGood is a Canadian corporation located in Whitby, Ontario, Canada. Between at least April 2019 and May 2021, FeelGood offered harp seal oil capsules for sale in the United States on both its own webpage and a third-party platform. It did so even though its website on the third-party platform acknowledged, “NOT ship to USA,” and though FeelGood received a notice that some shipments had been seized by the federal government for violation of the MMPA. >click to read< 18:55
Fish exporter pleads guilty to mislabeling Florida spiny lobster sold to China
The company, Aifa Seafood Inc., based in Florida City, faces a sentence of five years probation and a fine up to $500,000. A judge could sentence its president, 57-year-old Jiu Fa Chen, of Parkland, to up to five years in federal prison and order him to pay a fine of up to $250,000 during his scheduled May 23 hearing in Miami. According to an Oct. 5, 2022, grand jury indictment, from May 16, 2019, to Aug. 3, 2019, the company bought about 5,900 pounds of lobster from a company in Port Au Prince, Haiti, and turned around and exported it to customers in China with the label, “Florida Spiny Lobster, Product of the USA.” >click to read< 15:32
New Bedford fisherman pleads guilty to evading more than $431,000 in federal income taxes
Victor M. Cruz, 43, pleaded guilty to three counts of tax evasion in federal court in Boston on Tuesday. A warrant was put out for his arrest in August of 2021, and in July of last year he was arrested in Brownsville, Texas, a shrimp fishing port on the southernmost tip of the U.S.-Mexico border. Court records show how Cruz failed to report his wages over seven years working for “various commercial fishing vessels” on the Port of New Bedford. The companies were not named. >click to read< 10:26
Former Alaska Board of Fisheries appointee Roland Maw pleads guilty to PFD fraud
A former nominee to the Alaska Board of Fisheries and a prominent Cook Inlet commercial fisherman pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of unsworn falsification on Friday, ending a six-year legal struggle that saw him accused of multiple counts of Permanent Fund dividend fraud and improperly obtaining resident fishing licenses. Roland Maw, nominated by former Gov. Bill Walker to the Fish Board in 2015 but never appointed, will pay a $500 fine and pay restitution of $9,582. He had been facing 12 felonies and 5 misdemeanors; the remaining charges are dismissed. >click to read< 13:23
Maine Man Pleads Guilty to Making Hoax Distress Call
On December 3, 2020, while at the Spruce Head Fisherman’s Co-op, Nathan Libby, 31, communicated a false distress call for a vessel and crew reportedly taking on water in the vicinity of Spruce Head. In response, the U.S. Coast Guard initiated a search lasting more than five hours, which included the use of a local Coast Guard vessel, a Maine Marine Patrol vessel, and a helicopter from Coast Guard Air Station Cape Cod. Further investigation identified Libby as the caller and the search was suspended as a hoax call. >click to read< 07:39
Shelburne company pleads guilty in fisherman’s death
A Shelburne fishing company has pleaded guilty to three Occupational Health and Safety Act charges in the death of a lobster fisherman last year. Jimmy Buchanan died Jan. 7, 2017, after he fell overboard while setting lobster traps from the back of the vessel Secret Sea, about 50 kilometres southeast of Cape Sable Island. Buchanan, 44, was not wearing a personal flotation device at the time of the incident. >click to read<12:39
Seafood Processor Pleads Guilty to Massive Crab Meat Switcheroo
A Virginia seafood processor has pleaded guilty to falsely labeling millions of dollars worth of foreign crab meat as a “product of the USA,” the Justice Department announced Wednesday. James Casey, owner and president of Casey’s Seafood Inc., entered his plea in federal court in Newport News, Virginia. Prosecutors said he admitted conspiring with others to substitute foreign crab meat for Atlantic blue crab and, as part of the plea, admitted to falsely labeling more than 183 tons of crab meat, which was then sold to grocery stores and independent retailers.>click to read<17:35
Brooklyn Seafood Dealer Pleads Guilty for Illegally Trafficking American Eels
Tommy Water Zhou pled guilty in federal district court in Norfolk, Virginia, to trafficking more than $150,361 worth of juvenile American eels, aka “elvers” or “glass eels,” in violation of the Lacey Act. As part of his guilty plea, Zhou admitted to illegally selling or purchasing elvers in interstate commerce, which had been harvested illegally in Virginia. This plea was the result of “Operation Broken Glass,” a multi-jurisdiction U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) investigation into the illegal trafficking of American eels. To date, the investigation has resulted in guilty pleas for eleven individuals whose combined conduct resulted in the illegal trafficking of more than $2.75 million worth of elvers. In 2013, the defendant obtained a Maine elver dealer license, authorizing him to purchase and resell elvers harvested in Maine. Thereafter, using his Maine dealer license to cover his illegal activity,,, Click here to read the story 14:23
Fishing mogul Carlos Rafael pleads guilty, will be sentenced in June
Carlos Rafael pleaded guilty to charges of falsifying fish quotas, tax evasion and conspiracy in U.S. District Court in Boston Thursday. The U.S. attorney recommended 46 months of prison time for the sentencing hearing, which is scheduled for June 27. Rafael’s attorney William Kettlewell declined comment. He said his office would send out a statement. An updated indictment released two weeks ago included the charge of tax evasion. It stated from November 2014 to about October of 2015, Rafael failed to pay taxes in the sum of $108,929. It also included two new paragraphs regarding the general allegations toward Rafael. Read the rest here 17:02
An in-depth article – Owner of Carlos Seafood pleads guilt to forging records, smuggling profits Click here to read the article 17:36
Bumble Bee Pleads Guilty in Industrial Oven Death of Worker Jose Melena
Bumble Bee LLC pleaded guilty Wednesday to a misdemeanor charge stemming from the death of a Wilmington man who was cooked for two hours while trapped inside an industrial oven working at the company’s Santa Fe Springs plant. “I’ve … been a prosecutor for more than 20 years. I’ve tried more than 40 murder cases, and this is the worst circumstances of death I have ever, ever witnessed,” a deputy D.A. said. “I think any person would prefer to be, if they had to die some way … to be shot or stabbed than to be slowly cooked to death in an oven.” The pleas — which were anticipated under a $6 million settlement reached with the San Diego-based company in 2015 — stem from the Oct. 11, 2012, death of 62-year-old Jose Melena. Melena entered a 35-foot-long cylindrical oven used to sterilize cans of tuna at the plant. Co-workers, who were unaware that he was inside the oven, loaded 12,000 pounds of canned tuna and inadvertently trapped him in the back of the oven. He was found dead after the two-hour sterilization process. After the 2015 hearing, Chun described the circumstances of Melena’s death as “about as bad as you can imagine.” Read the rest of the story here 13:31
Fisherman pleads guilty to 39 albatross deaths
A commercial fishing boat skipper who caused the death of 39 albatrosses refused to use bird-scaring devices because he had “nothing but f…… trouble with the things”, a court has been told. Daniel Joseph Smyth, 37, admitted in the Greymouth District Court on Tuesday to being the master of a vessel that failed to comply with seabird mitigation measures by ignoring instructions to use a streamer line while fishing with surface longlines. The Ministry for Primary Industries’ (MPI) legal counsel William Jennings said Smyth was fishing for southern bluefin tuna off the West Coast in April and failed to use a streamer line, a mandatory device designed to scare birds away from baited hooks. Read the story here 14:03
Massachusetts man pleads guilty to making hoax distress calls to Coast Guard
A Massachusetts man has pleaded guilty to making hoax radio distress calls to the Coast Guard that prompted fruitless searches that wasted time and resources. Prosecutors say 47-year-old Roger Martin, of Fairhaven, made three calls to the Coast Guard in April and May 2015 claiming that he was on a boat on Cape Cod Canal that was sinking. In each case he provided another man’s name, address, and on one occasion, even birth date, that he had obtained improperly from a law enforcement database while working as a dispatcher for the Bristol County Sheriff’s Office. Martin pleaded guilty this week in federal court to three counts of sending false distress messages and one count of identity fraud. Sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 22. link 14:03
Fishing boat captain from East Lyme pleads guilty in tax evasion case
Peter P. Torres, a commercial fishing boat captain from East Lyme, pleaded guilty Monday in U.S. District Court to failing to file tax returns on approximately $1.27 million he earned between 2006 and 2011. Torres, 47, waived his right to indictment and pleaded guilty in New Haven before Chief U.S. District Judge Janet C. Hall to one count of attempted tax evasion. According to the office of U.S. Attorney Deirdre M. Daly and court documents, from 2006 to 2011 Torres failed to file tax returns ,,, Read the article here 09:32
Brownsville company pleads guilty to relabeling Mexican shrimp as domestic
Federal prosecutors say a Brownsville shrimping company has pleaded guilty to relabeling 35,000 pounds of hard-to-sell Mexican shrimp as wild-caught American crustaceans. U.S. Attorney Kenneth Polite’s office said in a news release that Garcia Shrimp Co., of Brownsville, Texas, admitted Thursday to a violation of the century-old federal Lacey Act. Polite said the company created false bills of lading and sold the shrimp to a New Orleans-based distributor. Read the rest here 15:14
Lobster trap thief pleads guilty to receiving stolen property and molesting lobster gear.
Kyle Basoukas pleaded guilty to receiving stolen property and molesting lobster gear. He was sentenced to 90 days in the house of corrections, suspended, pending good behavior for one year. Basoukas also pleaded guilty to 133 separate violations, ranging from illegal escape panels on lobster traps to uncompliant whale entanglement gear. He will have to pay more than $11,000 in fines and has lost the privilege of obtaining a lobster license for up to five years.Read more here fostersdaily 06:48
John Price, owner of J.P.’s Shellfish, pleads guilty to federal cash transaction charges
The owner of an Eliot seafood company pleaded guilty Tuesday to a dozen federal charges for directing an employee to stagger more than $157,000 in cash withdrawals to avoid Treasury Department reporting requirements. The money was used to buy live lobsters off the dock. Read more@portlandpress 11:33
