BOSTON – In a shocking turn of events, Carlos Rafael, 65, of Dartmouth, Massachusetts, pleaded guilty to operating a long-running scheme to evade federal fishing quotas.
Rafael, owner of Carlos Seafood, Inc. based in New Bedford, Massachusetts, owned 32 fishing vessels through independent corporate shells and 44 permits, making it one of the largest commercial fishing businesses in the United States.
According to the charges, 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.
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 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.
Rafael pleaded guilty 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.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 27, 2017.
Related Federal Cases
- Dunyadar Gasanov, Falsification of Records, Massachusetts 2019 · New Hampshire
- Carl L. Anderson, Falsifying Business Records, New York 2006 · Washington
- Amit Kanodia, Securities Fraud, Massachusetts 2013 · Washington
- Robert Crisologo Bobadilla Baez, Social Security Fraud and Aggravated Identity Theft, Massachusetts 2019 · Puerto Rico
- Christopher Morris, Wire Fraud, Massachusetts 2024 · Texas
Key Facts
- State: Massachusetts
- Category: White Collar Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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