The Department of Justice, along with NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS), announced that Rusty Anchor Seafood of Key West, Inc., a Florida corporation with its principal place of business in Stock Island, Key West, Florida, was charged in a criminal Information today with a conspiracy to receive, purchase, and transport quantities of lobster and finfish for resale and distribution in interstate commerce, without complying with Florida law regarding commercial harvest requirements, licensing provisions, and bag and trip limits essential to the lawful harvest, possession, and sale of saltwater products, in violation of the Lacey Act. If convicted, Rusty Anchor faces a possible criminal fine of up to the greater of $500,000, or twice the pecuniary gain from the relevant criminal conduct, and a period of probation of up to five years. Arraignment is scheduled for Friday, April 1, 2011.

According to the Information, agents and employees of Rusty Anchor made 42 purchases, valued at more than $100,000, of spiny lobster from a single harvester, but concealed and did not report an additional $23,000 of lobster purchases over the daily allowable bag limit. In another instance, Rusty Anchor agents and employees allocated 27 separate purchases of finfish to a license purportedly held in the name of the company President, although no such license existed. In addition, the Information alleges that in January 2008, employees of Rusty Anchor purchased more than $500 of the restricted species black grouper from an unlicensed fisherman and concealed the illegal transaction by mislabeling the catch as Mahoua, an unregulated bait fish.

An Information is merely an accusation and the defendants are assumed innocent until proven guilty.