Todd, Thomas and Renee Reeves and their oyster dealer company, Shellrock LLC, were sentenced for creating false oyster records, trafficking in illegally possessed oysters, obstructing the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) regulation of public health and safety.
Kenneth Bailey was sentenced for creating false oyster records and trafficking in illegal oysters.
The defendants were convicted in 2012 of felony crimes related to their overharvest and sale of over $750,000 worth of oysters from the Delaware Bay.
The FDA and state health agencies require that oyster purchasers and sellers maintain accurate records of amounts and locations of oyster harvest for what they buy and sell to protect public health and minimize impact of any oyster-borne outbreak of disease.
Overharvest of oysters
DOJ said the evidence showed that, for over four years, brothers Todd and Thomas Reeves would overharvest oysters from the Delaware Bay and create false dealer reports and harvester records to hide that overharvest from conservation officers.
They created false state and FDA health records to ensure that regulators would not detect their overharvest.
The pair then sold their illegal oysters through their company, Shellrock LLC, to Mark Bryan of Harbor House Seafood, a wholesale and retail seafood operator in Delaware.
Bryan and Harbor House are scheduled to be sentenced on February 27 for their role in conspiring to create false records to conceal the scheme from authorities.
John Cruden, assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said actions violated laws that protect public health and ensure sustainability of resources.
“The defendants’ actions were harmful to honest fisherman of the Delaware Bay and the long-term viability of a resource that is vital to the local economy and plays an important role in the history of Southern New Jersey.
“[The] sentences let the public know that we will not allow protected resources to be exploited, and that those who obstruct law enforcement and deprive honest fisherman of the full measure of their labor will be held accountable.”
Sentencing revealed
Todd Reeves was sentenced to serve 26 months in prison and three years of supervised release, to pay a $7,000 fine, and pay New Jersey $140,000 for the restoration of oyster beds in Delaware Bay.
Thomas Reeves was sentenced to serve 16 months and three years of supervised release and pay a $7,000 fine, while Renee Reeves was sentenced to serve five years of probation and pay a $2,500 fine.
Todd and Thomas Reeves were additionally ordered to forfeit $144,000 to substitute assets for the vessels that they used to overharvest the oysters.
The Reeves’ business, Shellrock, also known as “Reeves Brothers,” was ordered to pay a fine of $70,000 and complete a term of five years of probation.
Bailey, of Heislerville, New Jersey, was sentenced to serve six months incarceration, followed by six months of home confinement and three years of supervised release, and pay a $10,000 fine.
He was also ordered to forfeit $75,000 in substitute assets for the vessels that he used to overharvest the oysters.
The Lacey Act prohibits creating or submitting false records for fish or wildlife in interstate commerce and trafficking in fish or wildlife known to be illegally taken or possessed.
The case was investigated by the NOAA Office of Law Enforcement and New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Division of Fish and Wildlife.
Logan Gregory, assistant director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries’ Office of Law Enforcement, said cooperative enforcement was vital.
“The Office of Law Enforcement will continue to support our enforcement partners by providing complex investigation expertise to address wildlife trafficking, seafood fraud and illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing.”