U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte sentenced Robert Lumpkins of St. Mary’s County, owner of Golden Eye Seafood LLC today to 18 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and sentenced the corporation to three years probation, after a three day sentencing hearing, announced United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein and John C. Cruden, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. Judge Messitte also ordered Lumpkins to pay a $36,000 fine and restitution of $164,040.50.
Lumpkins and Golden Eye had previously pleaded guilty to conspiring to violate and violating the Lacey Act, by falsely recording the amount and weight of striped bass, also known as rockfish, that were harvested by local fisherman and checked-in through Golden Eye from 2003 to 2007.
U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein stated, “If commercial fishermen obey the rules, we can all enjoy rockfish forever. If they don’t, the rockfish population could be wiped out very quickly. This sentence sends a message that we are serious about protecting the rockfish population in the Chesapeake Bay.”
“This prison sentence sends a strong message to commercial fishermen and wholesalers on the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River. Those who illegally harvest rockfish will be investigated, prosecuted and face stiff sentences including the possibility of incarceration,” said John C. Cruden, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division.
According to Lumpkins’ plea agreement, from at least 2003 to the present, he was a fish wholesaler, doing business from his residence in Piney Point, Maryland, under the name Golden Eye Seafood. Lumpkins, through Golden Eye, acted as a commercial striped bass check-in station for the state of Maryland. Lumpkins admitted that on numerous occasions from 2003 to 2007, he falsely recorded the amount of striped bass that fisherman harvested and failed to record some of the striped bass that was caught, or recorded a lower weight of striped bass than was actually caught.
Lumpkins and the fisherman also falsely inflated the actual number of fish harvested. By under-reporting the weight of fish harvested, and over-reporting the number of fish taken, the records made it appear that the fishermen had failed to reach the maximum poundage quota for the year, but had nonetheless run out of tags. As a result, the state issued additional tags that could be used by the fishermen allowing them to catch striped bass above their maximum poundage quota amount. Lumpkins and Golden Eye shipped the majority of the fish to purchasers in Maryland and in other states. Lumpkins also purchased fish that were outside the legal size limit from an undercover agent and sold those fish to purchasers in New York, Virginia, and California.
Joseph Peter Nelson Jr., a commercial fisherman licensed in Maryland, pleaded guilty to four felony violations of the Lacey Act for participating in a scheme to illegally over harvest and under report the amount of rockfish he took from the Potomac River. His father, Joseph Peter Nelson Sr., also pleaded guilty to one felony violation of the Lacey Act for assisting in transporting the illegally taken rockfish in interstate commerce. The Nelsons are scheduled to be sentenced on October 22, 2009. Jerry Decatur, Sr.