PORTLAND, Maine — The owner of an Eliot seafood dealership was sentenced Wednesday to 45 days in jail and fined $100,000 for illegally structuring cash deposits linked to lobsters purchased from members of the Spruce Head Fishermen’s Cooperative.
The lobsters John Price, 58, acquired from the cooperative involved side sales made by members of the cooperative who were not licensed dealers, according to the federal government.
Price was sentenced in U.S. District Court for 12 counts of illegal currency structuring and one violation of the Lacey Act, which among other things prohibits trade in fish that have been illegally sold. Price pleaded guilty in January to those charges.
The federal government contended Price structured bank deposits from those sales to avoid reaching the $10,000 level that requires filing currency transaction paperwork with the U.S. Treasury Department.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office issued a memorandum to the court stating the offenses committed by Price called for 46 to 57 months behind bars under federal sentencing guidelines. Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Lipez said after the hearing Wednesday that the prosecution did not make a specific sentencing recommendation but indicated he should serve some time.
Defense attorney Daniel Mitchell sought probation for his client. Mitchell stressed in his memo to the court how respected Price was as a person and business owner.
Lipez said the U.S. attorney’s office agrees the purchases by Price involved side sales from members of the Spruce Head Fishermen’s Cooperative in South Thomaston.
That acknowledgement contrasted with how the criminal investigation began more than two years ago, when Robert Thompson, 54, of St. George, the former manager of the cooperative, was arrested and accused of stealing more than $1 million worth of lobsters from members and selling them to Price’s business.
According to a police affidavit filed in court two years ago, the cooperative’s board of directors met in January of that year to voice their suspicions about Thompson. One board member told police he had spoken to a lobsterman in Harpswell and said the man’s son was a truck driver for the Price seafood dealership who dropped off large amounts of cash to Thompson.
Price’s seafood business was the primary buyer of lobsters from the Spruce Head Fishermen’s Cooperative, which has about 56 lobstermen as members.
Thompson, 54, was arrested Oct. 3, 2012, by the Knox County Sheriff’s Office and charged with felony theft. He had been the wharf manager for the cooperative for 20 years. His job included overseeing the buying and selling of lobsters.
The charge against Thompson was dropped by the state in May 2013 after the district attorney’s office said it did not want to turn over evidence to the defense because it could jeopardize a federal investigation. The U.S. attorney’s office has not commented on whether it is investigating Thompson. No charges have been filed in federal court.
But Thompson’s attorney, Walter McKee, said earlier this month he was working toward a resolution of the case before the end of the year.
Officers of the cooperative have declined to comment on the matter. The cooperative did settle a civil lawsuit it filed against Price and his J.P. Shellfish business but did not disclose terms of that settlement. The cooperative agreed, however, to continue doing business with Price.