PORTLAND — John W. Price, 59, of Kittery, was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court by Judge D. Brock Hornby to 45 days in prison for structuring currency transactions and for illegally purchasing lobsters, according to United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II.
Price was also fined $100,000.
Between 2008 and 2010, Price, the owner of J.P.’s Shellfish, a seafood distributor in Eliot, purchased lobsters for cash from a dock employee of the Spruce Head Fisherman’s Co-op in South Thomaston. Price told his employees who withdrew the cash from the J.P.’s Shellfish business bank account not to withdraw more than $10,000 in cash at any one time, so as to avoid federal regulations requiring banks to file reports involving cash transactions of more than $10,000, according to court records.
The dock employee who sold the lobsters to Price was not a licensed seafood dealer, making the sales illegal under Maine law. Under the federal Lacey Act, it is illegal to purchase lobsters in violation of state law.
“This scheme to transact enormous amounts of American lobster on the black market undermines the ability of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the state of Maine to sustainably manage this fishery, which is so critical to Maine’s overall economy,” said NOAA Special Agent in Charge Logan Gregory. “The Office of Law Enforcement will continue to work with its state and federal partners to expose these schemes and hold the participants accountable.”
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