Rockwood Man Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion and Illegally Selling Lobster Charges

Contacts: Julia M. Lipez, Richard W. Murphy
Assistant United States Attorneys
Tel: (207) 780-3257

Portland, Maine: United States Attorney Thomas E. Delahanty II announced that
Robert Thompson, 53, of Rockwood, Maine pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court to
federal income tax evasion and illegally selling lobster charges.

Court records reveal that between 2008 and 2011, Thompson was the dock manager for
the Spruce Head Fisherman’s Co-op in South Thomaston, Maine. In that capacity, Thompson
illegally bought lobsters from Co-op members for cash, rather than buying and selling those
lobsters through the Co-op system. Thompson resold the lobsters he bought for cash to J.P.’s
Shellfish, a seafood distributor in Eliot, Maine. Thompson was not a licensed seafood dealer,
making the sales to J.P.’s Shellfish illegal under Maine law. Under the federal Lacey Act, it is
illegal to sell lobsters in violation of state law. Thompson also failed to report his profit from
these side deals as income on his federal income tax return thus evading over $49,000 in income
taxes.

Thompson faces up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine on the Lacey Act charge
and up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine on the tax evasion charge. He will be
sentenced after the completion of a presentence investigation report by the U.S. Probation Office.

The charges are the result of a collaborative investigation conducted by the Internal
Revenue Service; the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Office of Law
Enforcement; and the Knox County Sheriff’s Office.