Tag Archives: wire fraud

Man sentenced in scheme to skim money from Maine seafood company

June 20, 2018   International News, New England

A former seafood dealer was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland to six months in federal prison for wire fraud, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Jonathan F. Cowles, 48, of Honolulu, Hawaii, and formerly of Rowley, Massachusetts, also was ordered to pay nearly $360,000 in restitution to his former employer, Maine Coast Shellfish, LLC, a lobster wholesaler in York. That is the amount of money the company lost when Cowles had Maine Coast Shellfish ship 50,000 pounds of lobster to a customer in China whose identity he concealed and who never paid for the lobsters, according to court documents. >click to read<08:16

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Ex-National Fish president pleads guilty to tax fraud

December 28, 2017   National, New England

The former president of East Gloucester-based National Fish pleaded guilty to seven counts of tax evasion on Friday as part of a deal with federal prosecutors that removed more serious conspiracy charges involving at least one other National Fish executive. Jack A. Ventola of Ipswich changed his plea to guilty last Tuesday and now faces up to three years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of at least $250,000 for each of the seven counts. Ventola also was ordered to make restitution of $1.07 million to the IRS. click here to read the story 13:53

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Former Pacific Seafood executive sentenced for embezzlement

July 25, 2017   Pacific

A former executive who embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars from Pacific Seafood Group was sentenced Monday in federal court to two years in federal prison. Andrew Henry Jacobs, 50, spent 11 years at the family-owned company Pacific Seafood Group, rising to serve as vice president of employee leadership and development for the company’s 2,500-member staff. While receiving a six-figure salary, he spent at least his last four years embezzling money from the company, stealing an estimated $900,000, according to prosecutors. He was sentenced after pleading guilty to wire fraud and filing a false income tax return. Using a company credit card and the authority to issue corporate checks, he secretly diverted company funds to purchase electronics, jewelry, firearms, vacations and prostitution services, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan Bounds. He concealed his theft by doctoring receipts and invoices used to track expenses, according to the prosecutor. click here to read the story 11:08

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Five Indicted on Charges of Embezzling Nearly $500,000 From Trident Seafoods Five people with ties to Kodiak, Alaska

October 3, 2012   North Pacific
Five people with ties to Kodiak, Alaska have been indicted on charges of wire fraud related to the embezzlement of almost $500,000 from Trident Seafoods. US Attorney Karen Loeffler made the announcement Oct. 1 in Anchorage.
 According to the indictment, one of the five used her position as a bookkeeper for Trident in Kodiak to write Trident checks to the other four from January 2008 through August 2010. The allegations say the bookkeeper used her check writing authority with Trident to draft some 52 checks on a Trident account and made them payable to those four, as well as to her minor son. The five adults shared the proceeds of the checks, the indictment alleges. It is further alleged that the bookkeeper concealed the fraud by creating fraudulent accounting records so that the payments appeared to be legitimate. Assistant US Attorney Aunnie Steward, who presented the case to the grand jury, indicated that the law provides for a maximum total sentence of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine or both for each count, as well as restitution of the embezzled funds. The actual sentence imposed would be based on the seriousness of the offenses and the prior criminal history, if any, of the defendants. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Kodiak Police Department assisted in investigating the case. http://fnonlinenews.blogspot.com/2012/10/five-indicted-on-charges-of-embezzling.html
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