Tag Archives: U.S. Justice Department
Starkist Hit With $100M Fine in Seafood Price-Fixing Scheme
Starkist must pay a $100 million criminal fine for conspiring to fix packaged seafood prices, a federal judge ruled Wednesday, despite arguments it could bankrupt the company or cause its employees to lose jobs. “I think it’s in the interest of the economy not to bankrupt Starkist, but the court has the leverage to extend the payments out,”,, Starkist general counsel and senior vice president Robert Scott Meece said the company has about 100 employees at its Pittsburgh headquarters and 2,100 working at a factory in American Samoa. “These employees have had this hanging over their heads for a long time,” >click to read< 12:00
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
Ex-Fishing Boat Captain Guilty of Dumping Oily Waste Into Pacific
A former fishing boat captain is facing up to six years in prison for deliberately dumping oily slops into the Pacific Ocean. A jury in Seattle convicted Randall Fox on Thursday of violating the federal Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships. He also faces a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced.,, A Native Sun crewmember videotaped Fox dumping waste and turned the tape over to prosecutors.,, The Justice Department says Fox’s father, who had also been a captain of the Native Sun, was also convicted of a pollution-related crime last year. >click to read<09:01
Fisherman’s case yields complicated evidence trail
The federal trial of Thomas Kokell features a trail of evidence including hand-scrawled freight tickets and fishing-trip reports. Stacks of paper slips have cluttered a U.S. courtroom in Central Islip over the past two weeks, a multicolored trail of evidence in the first major criminal trial of a Long Island fisherman charged in a probe of alleged illegal fishing.,,, The charges stem from a five-year federal probe of an auction program that let fishermen harvest beyond their quotas. The investigation has netted seven guilty pleas and prison or home-detention sentences for five other people. One of the men who pleaded guilty is Mark Parente, a fish dealer from New Jersey,,, >click to read<11:16
