Department of Justice
United States Attorneys Office
- District of Massachusetts

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 2, 2007

NEW BEDFORD FISH DEALER PLEADS GUILTY TO CASH PAYMENT SCHEME

BOSTON, MA - A New Bedford man pled guilty today to charges that he covered 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 A. Bricker, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Internal Revenue Service - Boston Field Office, announced that ARISTIDES M. "STEVE" COUTO, age 57, of 155 Winston Street, New Bedford, pled guilty to a two-count Information charging him 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.

According to the Information, for several years COUTO operated a fish wholesale business in the South Terminal area on the New Bedford waterfront called Steve's Fillets, through which he bought fish directly from commercial fishing vessels and resold 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 a 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 faces up to five years imprisonment, to be followed by three years of supervised release and a $250,000 fine.

COUTO sentencing is scheduled for January 31, 2008.

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

On the Web:
NOAA Fisheries Service: www.nmfs.noaa.gov
NOAA: www.noaa.gov