Department of Justice
U.S. Attorney’s Office
- Southern District of Florida

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 16, 2004

MIAMI SEAFOOD COMPANY PLEADS GUILTY AND IS SENTENCED FOR OFFERING UNDERSIZED LOBSTER FOR SALE

Marcos Daniel Jiménez, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and David A. McKinney, Special Agent in Charge, National Marine Fisheries Service announced today that Interamerican Trading & Products Corporation pled guilty before United States District Court Judge Adalberto Jordan, in connection with an offer to sell approximately 30,720 undersized Honduran-origin spiny lobster in the United States. Pursuant to the Plea Agreement in the case, Interamerican admitted that the popular crustaceans, which it attempted to sell in September, 1999 for more than $9.50 per pound, were imported into the United States contrary to Honduran law which specified a tail size of no less than 5 1/2 inches. This activity was in violation of the Federal Lacey Act, Title 16, United States Code, Sections 3372 and 3373, prohibiting imports contrary to the laws of a foreign contrary that were intended to conserve the species from overfishing and depletion. Judge Jordan sentenced the company to a fine of $90,000 which was paid at the time of sentencing and ordered to be deposited into the NOAA Fisheries Enforcement Fund, and also imposed an eighteen month period of probation.

According to statements in Court, the one-Count Information and the guilty plea were delayed pending the resolution of a case in Alabama which featured a massive conspiracy and related violations of the Lacey Act by several individuals and companies associated with Interamerican. That matter, styled U.S. V. McNab, No.00-0079- CB, resulted in the conviction of four individuals in a case involving lobster tails with a wholesale value of more than $17 million. The defendants therein were convicted on a variety of charges, including money laundering and conspiracy. The longest sentence imposed in that case was eight years. Interamerican’s President, Claudio Feuermann, who signed the Miami plea agreement on the company’s behalf, cooperated with the government’s investigation in Alabama and testified at the trial. Feuermann, who had a financial interest in seafood processing facilities in Honduras was a key witness for the United States. On February 23rd of this year the United States Supreme Court rejected the effort of the McNab defendants, David Henson McNab, a citizen of Honduras, Robert D. Blandford, of Coral Springs, FL, Abner J. Schoenwetter, of the Miami area, and Diane Huang, of Englewood Cliffs, NJ, to challenge their convictions.

According to the charging document and a statement of facts provided to the Court, an employee of Interamerican made the offer to sell the undersized lobster tails to another seafood business, unaware that a NOAA National Marine Fisheries Special Agent was listening to the conference call.

The Caribbean, or Florida, spiny lobster (Panulirus argus) is found in salt waters from Florida to Brazil, including the waters off Honduras, comprising one of the world’s largest commercial lobster fisheries. Biologists believe that the offspring of lobster populations off the Western Caribbean coast, including Honduras, are key sources for replenishing the lobster stocks in the Southeast United States. Spiny lobsters must mature to a certain size and/or age, typically at least 5.5 inches in tail length, before they are able to reproduce. To promote reproduction, both the State of Florida and Honduras, as well as many other Caribbean nations, have established a size limit for spiny lobster of 5.5 inches in tail length. For the same reason, both the State of Florida and Honduras prohibit the harvest of female lobsters that are in the eggbearing stage of reproduction.

Mr. Jiménez commended the investigation of this matter by the Special Agents of the NOAA National Marine Fisheries Service, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of Alabama, and the Wildlife and Marine Resources Section of the U.S. Department of Justice. The case was prosecuted in Miami by the Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Watts-FitzGerald, Chief of the Environmental Crimes Section in Miami.