“Out of Control” NOAA Used Fishing Fines for International Travel & Paying Allegedly Corrupt U.S. Coast Guard ALJ Judges Who Imposed the Fines
July 13, 2010
Steve Urbon
NEW BEDFORD — Four days after the head of NOAA issued a sweeping order to overhaul and repair the Asset Forfeiture Fund, a New York senator demanded on Monday that NOAA cease using the fund and start making plans to return money to aggrieved fishermen.
Meanwhile, it was revealed Monday that NOAA has been using the fund for years to pay 60 percent of the costs of the administrative law judges it hires from the Coast Guard, a payment that has been ended.
Megan H. Allison, director of Judicial Administration and supervisory attorney at the Office of Administrative Law at the Coast Guard, told The Standard-Times that the agency had been unaware of the source of the money, only that it came from NOAA.
A local attorney who represents fishermen observed that even though the money doesn't go directly to the judges, it does in effect mean that judges are ordering ruinous penalties that come around to pay their own salaries.
An e-mail from a NOAA staffer obtained by The Standard-Times reads, "Coast Guard administrative law judges have performed these functions for NOAA for over a decade under this (memo of understanding) and its predecessors."
U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., held a press conference Monday calling on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to sell off the things it bought without authorization and prepare to return that money to fishermen who were unjustly prosecuted. Those items include hundreds of cars and a $300,000 boat. Fifteen NOAA staffers also used the forfeiture fund to travel to Norway for a conference, the Commerce Department's inspector general disclosed in a scathing report last week.
"It appears that we had an out-of-control regional (Northeast) fisheries office that used excess fines and forfeitures as a slush fund for excess," Schumer said. "The fact that the very people charged with enforcing the rules related to fishing have done so in an arbitrary and capricious way throws NOAA's entire enforcement program into doubt. I am calling on NOAA to hold people responsible, sell off the cars, boats and other unauthorized purchases and fund fishermen who were unjustly or excessively fined and whose fishing seasons have been shortened."
In a letter to NOAA administrator Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Schumer also demanded that NOAA stop using the fund until it can be reorganized and is within the law. Lubchenco has moved the fund to the control of the comptroller of her agency, but the fund can still be used by the law enforcement office as long as it gets a sign-off on purchases over $1,000.
New Bedford attorney Pamela Lafreniere said Monday that without the asset forfeiture money, NOAA's law enforcement activities would be in serious budget trouble. The inspector general concluded that apart from salaries, all but $1,000 of the spending of the Office of General Counsel for Enforcement and Litigation needs to spend to operate comes from the forfeitures — "my clients," Lafreniere said.
Likewise, the Office of Law Enforcement has broadly interpreted its authorization to use asset fund money, and would be seriously hampered, Lafreniere said.
Schumer called on NOAA to do something it has resisted since the inspector general's preliminary report in January: revisit past cases and make restitution where called for.
He said NOAA should immediately analyze individual excess fines, recalculate an appropriate fine, and return the excess to Northeast fishermen. Schumer said that money not needed to reimburse excess fines be used as economic aid or re-training programs for displaced fishermen burdened by catch restrictions.
Schumer and Lafreniere both maintained that NOAA imposes almost impossibly strict standards on fishermen, yet has been reckless and unlawful with tens of millions of dollars of forfeiture money.
"I am gravely concerned with the ability of a regional fisheries agency to so wantonly circumvent the law without notice for so long," Schumer said. "NOAA has a lot of work to do to rectify this situation and we will be watching with a close eye to determine if even more significant steps are necessary to clean up this mess."
NOAA had issued no comment on Schumer's statements Monday afternoon.
Steve Urbon is senior correspondent of The Standard-Times.