"Codfather" busted

[JBird]

http://www.capecodtimes.com/news/201...d-on-27-counts

The tragic part of this story is this isn't even the tip of the iceberg of what's happening with fisheries in general. Illicit black market trawling, honor system reporting, unreported dead discard is a HUGE problem with the commercial fishing community. I would guess 90% of commercial guys abide by the rules and have the interests of the fishery in mind. The other 10% cause extensive amounts of damage which all of us pay for through reduced harvest limits and more stringent regulations. It took 5 years for the guy in the article to get caught, can only imagine how many others are doing it when you consider the money involved and never get caught. The ones who are should face significant jail time if enforcement wants to send a message. Confiscate all his equipment, take back permits and shut him down. Send a message and maybe people will start thinking twice before pillaging the ocean.

[EddieG]

I agreee... that's only one person who got caught. Think about how many people are out there that didn't get caught that are doing this, maybe not to this scale but still wrong and illegal. That's like a criminal that is brought to jail because he/ she was finally caught doing something wrong.. how many times did they commit offenses before they got caught that no one knows about.

[blindalfred]

Interesting article. I wonder how the fans of cutting funding for NOAA here will respond. Another thread that will need to be shut down?

[NoLimit]

Is there any doubt that the commercial fishing industry is ruining for everyone...under the guise of being legally permitted?

[AndyS]

Posted May 9. 2016

[Capt. Lou]

And they have the nerve to stop a sport boat , to check for compliance ! Yaaa they get a couple of fillets every so often while these commercials steal our quotas to the tune of millions 😡
And don't think it isn't going on every dam day somewhere , while we adhere to
stringent limits set by an agency that's out of touch with reality when it comes to fisheries management ! One needn't look any farther than a documentary on TV entitled Lawless Oceans ! Those guys really adhere to limits , just like all of us anglers ought to in the future . When are we going to realize the jokes on us !

[stevelikes2fish]

Originally Posted by blindalfred

Interesting article. I wonder how the fans of cutting funding for NOAA here will respond. Another thread that will need to be shut down?

Sounds like the NOAA police have failed in as much letting this go on since 2012. I say fire all the top pencil pushers in this waste of taxpayer funded agency.......

[Capt Sal]

But we should work together for the common cause! NOT!!!!!!!!!!

[howarda780]

This article is from Friday.




Carlos Rafael to plead guilty to fish fraud charges By Samuel Hill March 10, 2017
Carlos “the Codfather” Rafael will plead guilty to evading fishing quotas and smuggling profits to Portugal as part of a settlement he reached with the government, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Massachusetts.

Carlos Rafael owns Carlos Seafood in New Bedford, Mass.

Rafael, New Bedford’s king quota holder with investments in the New England groundfish and scallop fisheries, was arrested in February 2016 after a sting operation conducted by the the Internal Revenue Service uncovered an alleged bookkeeping scam. Rafael was accused of falsifying federal fish tickets by renaming valuable fish on tight quotas — like American plaice, yellowtail or gray sole — and selling them as more common species like haddock pollock.

“The thing is, when the guy (NMFS dockside inspector) disappears, that’s when we got a chance to make that fish disappear and the fish disappears under a different name,” Rafael told the agents, according to one IRS affidavit. “Becomes one of the names where we have a lot of quota, that doesn’t make a difference. I can call them haddock. This year I’ll have 15 million pounds of haddock (quota). So I can call any son of a bitch haddock if the bastards (inspectors) are not there. I rename them.”

Rafael was scheduled to appear in federal court on March 20, but is now scheduled to plead guilty in U.S. District Court in Boston at 2 p.m. on March 16. He’s facing one count of conspiracy, 25 counts of lying to federal fishing regulators and one count of bulk cash smuggling.

According to the indictment, a conviction could have resulted in Rafael’s forfeiture of all boats and equipment used in the offenses, which included 13 boats.

The U.S. Attorney’s office has provided no further details regarding the plea deal.