Owner of Fishing Business Pleads to Falsifying Records & Smuggling Proceeds Abroad

[nitpicker]

https://www.justice.gov/usao-ma/pr/owner-one-largest-commercial-fishing-businesses-us-pleads-falsifying-records-smuggling

Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
District of Massachusetts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, March 30, 2017

Owner of One of the Largest Commercial Fishing Businesses in U.S. Pleads to Falsifying Records & Smuggling Proceeds Abroad

Defendant known in fishing industry as “the Codfather”

BOSTON – The owner of one of the largest commercial fishing businesses in the United States pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Boston to operating a long-running scheme through which he submitted falsified records to the federal government to evade federal fishing quotas. He then smuggled a portion of the proceeds to Portugal. Carlos Rafael, 65, of Dartmouth, pleaded guilty today to one count of conspiring to commit offenses against the United States, 23 counts of false labeling and fish identification, two counts of falsifying federal records, one count of bulk cash smuggling, and one count of tax evasion.

Rafael, owner of Carlos Seafood, Inc. based in New Bedford, Mass., owned 32 fishing vessels through independent corporate shells and 44 permits, which amounted to one of the largest commercial fishing businesses in the United States. He was initially arrested and charged in February 2016. U.S. District Court Judge William G. Young scheduled sentencing for June 27, 2017.
(snip)

The charges arose out of an undercover investigation in which federal agents posed as organized crime figures interested in buying Carlos Seafood. From 2012 to January 2016, Rafael routinely lied to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) about the quantity and species of fish his boats caught, in order to evade federal quotas designed to guarantee the sustainability of certain fish species.

During that period, Rafael misreported to NOAA approximately 782,812 pounds of fish, telling NOAA that the fish was haddock, or some other abundant species subject to high quotas, when in fact the fish was cod, sole, or other species subject to strict quotas. After submitting false records to federal regulators, Rafael sold much of the fish to a wholesale business in New York City in exchange for bags of cash. During meetings with the undercover agents, Rafael said that in his most recent dealings with the New York buyer he received $668,000 in cash. Rafael smuggled at least some of that cash out of the United States to his native Portugal, hiding it there to evade federal taxation on that revenue.
(snip)

[Submariner]

1. Scum like this deserve life without parole

and take every cent of his assets even if his wife and kids have to flip burgers and make fries.

This kind of low life is as bad as the rogue unregulated fishing vessels decimating the planets fisheries for their personal gain. Hopefully Rafael dies in prison as a lesson to fellow cheats.

[mopinko]

2. is he tied to the moonies?

i remember a story a while back about how the rev moon had his hooks into most of the sushi eaten in this country.