Department of Justice
United States Attorney’s Office
- District of Massachusetts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sept. 27, 2007

NEW BEDFORD FISH DEALER CHARGED IN CASH PAYMENT SCHEME
HID OVER THREE-QUARTERS OF A MILLION DOLLARS IN FISH PURCHASES

BOSTON , MA - A New Bedford man was charged today in federal court with covering up a scheme to pay cash to fishing vessel owners for their catches by falsifying reports to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and structuring hundreds of cash transactions.

United States Attorney Michael J. Sullivan, Andrew Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of NOAA Fisheries Enforcement in New England and Douglas Bricker, Special Agent in Charge of the Internal Revenue Service in New England, announced today that ARISTIDES M. "STEVE" COUTO, age 57, of 155 Winston Street, New Bedford, was charged in a two-count Information with making false statements within the jurisdiction of a government agency and with structuring cash transactions for the purpose of evading currency transaction reporting requirements.

The Information alleges that for several years, COUTO has operated a fish wholesale business in the South Terminal area on the New Bedford waterfront called Steve's Fillets, through which he buys fish directly from commercial fishing vessels and resells it to wholesalers and retailers of fish. Beginning in at least 2002, COUTO enticed fishing boat captains to sell their fish to him by offering to pay for part of their catch in cash. The cash portion of COUTO’s fish purchases ranged from $2,000 to $10,000 per trip.

In exchange for his willingness to pay in cash, COUTO often demanded and received prices for fish that were lower than the prevailing daily prices. COUTO also paid captains cash for "overages," that is, fish caught in excess of regulatory limits, thereby enabling them to avoid detection by law enforcement.

According to the Information, COUTO concealed his cash payments in two ways. First, he routinely lied in the dealer reports he was required to submit to NOAA by understating the amount of fish he purchased. The purpose of dealer reports was to provide NOAA with reliable and current information about the size of fish stocks so that it could tailor its regulations to conserve those stocks while balancing the interests of the fishing industry and the communities in which it does business. Over a four-year period, COUTO concealed from NOAA at total of approximately $774,000 in fish purchases.

In addition to falsifying his dealer reports, COUTO sought to hide his large cash transactions by structuring cash withdrawals from his bank accounts at Webster Bank to avoid regulations that require banks to report to the U.S. Department of the Treasury cash transactions over $10,000. For over a three year period, COUTO did this by withdrawing cash in $9,900 increments on 133 occasions.

COUTO's efforts to conceal his cash payment scheme by falsifying his dealer reports and structuring cash withdrawals are the basis for the charges in the Information.

If convicted on these charges, COUTO faces up to five years imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release, and a $250,000 fine.

The case was investigated by the New Bedford office of NOAA Fisheries Enforcement and the Internal Revenue Service. It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jon Mitchell of Sullivan’s Economic Crimes Unit.

The details contained in the indictment are allegations. The defendant is presumed to be innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.