Lawyers wrangle over man's sentence for rockfish scam

Lumpkins under-reported catch

Friday, Sept. 25, 2009

About 100 people, including Lumpkins' family members and other St Mary's residents, filled the U.S. District Courtroom in Greenbelt on Thursday as lawyers explored the state and federal regulation and oversight of the commercial harvesting of the fish.

Federal prosecutors filed a report before this week's sentencing hearing stating that the under-reported weight of rockfish that watermen checked in at Lumpkins' Golden Eye Seafood business in Tall Timbers had a fair-market value of up to $2.8 million, and that Lumpkins played a "central and instrumental role … in a massive over-harvest and false reporting scheme."

The scheme impacted other watermen in Maryland and throughout the East Coast, according to prosecutors, and "jeopardized an entire industry" as it threatened the livelihoods of the watermen, specifically "tens of thousands of law-abiding citizens' jobs."

Lumpkins' company faced a maximum fine of $500,000, and Lumpkins faced a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on each of four charges, prosecutors announced at the time of his plea agreement.

Lumpkins, 55, and his business acted as a commercial rockfish check-in station for the state of Maryland from 2003 to 2007, according to prosecutors, who alleged that he recorded a lower weight of rockfish than was actually caught and 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 would make it appear that watermen had failed to reach their maximum poundage quota for the year, but had nonetheless run out of tags.  As a result, the state would issue additional tags that could be used by the watermen to catch more rockfish, above their allotted maximum poundage.

The two-day sentencing proceeding included questions on Thursday by Lumpkins' attorneys about who was primarily responsible for the accuracy of watermen's rockfish harvest cards filed at the check station, and prosecutors acknowledged that it was a shared responsibility. Defense lawyers suggested that other watermen previously sentenced in the case had not been penalized for their role in a breach of public trust involved in understating the weight of the fish they brought to Lumpkins' business.

Defense lawyers challenged the prosecution's account of the fair market value of the fish. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife special agent acknowledged during cross examination that data on a grocery chain's sale price for rockfish over five years was based on a single visit two weeks ago to the seafood manager at a store in Annapolis. The agency also got prices at other regional seafood outlets ranging from $4 to $8 per pound. That prosecutors' report based the under-reported catch's value at just less than $7 a pound.

Lumpkins and Golden Eye shipped the majority of the fish to purchasers in Maryland and in other states. As a result of the investigation and prosecution, two fish wholesalers and a total of 15 individuals were charged with illegally harvesting and under-reporting their catch of rockfish.

Eleven individuals and two wholesale companies pleaded guilty.

In their report, filed before the sentencing hearing, prosecutors wrote that Lumpkins orchestrated "a cover-up with his co-conspirators" after authorities raided his business, and that he predicted to one waterman that the matter was "all going to blow over" and that they could resume over-harvesting rockfish on a smaller scale.

jwharton@somdnews.com