District of Columbia Seafood Company, Owner and Employee Plead Guilty to Federal Trafficking Charges

WASHINGTON—A fish wholesaler, its owner and an employee have all pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia for the illegal purchase and sale of striped bass from the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River from 2003 through 2007, the Justice Department announced today. Cannon Seafood Inc., its owner and president Robert Moore Sr. of Falls Church, Va., and Robert Moore Jr. of Ashburn, Va., each pleaded guilty to one felony violation of the Lacey Act. The Act prohibits individuals or corporations from creating false records for fish, and from transporting, selling, or buying fish harvested illegally. Under the terms of the plea agreement, Cannon Seafood has agreed to pay a fine of $80,000 and pay $28,000 in restitution to the congressionally established National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF). Moore Sr. has agreed to pay a $40,000 fine and pay $15,000 in restitution to the NFWF and Moore Jr. has agreed to pay a $30,000 fine and pay $10,000 in restitution to the same foundation. The court set a sentencing date of May 8, 2009, at 9:30 A.M. According to the plea agreement, from April 2003 until June 30, 2007, Moore Sr., Cannon’s majority owner and president and Moore Jr. bought striped bass from Thomas Hallock, a commercial fisherman from Maryland, and Jerry Decatur Sr. and Jerry Decatur Jr., two Virginia fisherman. The Moores knew that striped bass was regulated with various closed seasons and size limits and that Virginia and Maryland required all commercially harvested striped bass to have plastic tags affixed when they were caught. According to the plea agreement, during this time period, Hallock harvested more striped bass than allowed under his Maryland limit, and did not report the striped bass that he was selling to Cannon. He also caught striped bass during the spawning season when commercial harvest was prohibited, and sold this fish to Cannon. In turn, Moore, Jr. and other Cannon employees, on behalf of Cannon, generated and provided Hallock false receipts for the Maryland-caught striped bass that had been transported from Maryland into the District of Columbia. Moore Sr. knew that Moore, Jr. and other Cannon employees were generating and providing these false Cannon sales receipts. These receipts falsely reflected that Cannon had purchased another species of fish from Hallock, and also altered the weight and price of the fish in order to conceal the striped bass purchase. During this time period, Cannon generated 168 false receipts for over 62,000 pounds of Maryland striped bass, and paid Hallock over $139,000 for this fish. Further, Moore Sr. and other Cannon employees, on behalf of Cannon, arranged for and purchased striped bass from the Decaturs that had been transported from Virginia into the District of Columbia, and which did not have plastic tags affixed to the fish as required by Virginia law. Moore Jr., regularly saw striped bass that had been purchased from the Decaturs without affixed tags and, knew that Cannon was buying these striped bass illegally. The majority of untagged fish that Cannon bought from the Decaturs was caught and bought during the spring striped bass spawning seasons when fishing was prohibited because of its importance to the long term propagation of the species. During this time period, Cannon purchased over 30,000 pounds of untagged striped bass from the Decaturs, and paid over $87,000 for the fish. “Fishing limits in the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River are designed to protect the healthy sustainable population of striped bass and ensure a viable fishery up and down the eastern seaboard. Seafood wholesalers, like Cannon Seafood, who knowingly help fishermen conceal their illegal activities, and who purchase and resell illegally harvested rockfish are undercutting honest fishermen and risking the continuation of the species,” said John C. Cruden, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “This concert