January 13, 2020 — By the start of the new fishing year on May 1, Carlos Rafael, once owner of one of the largest fishing fleets in the country and known as the “Codfather,” will officially be little more than a memory on the New Bedford waterfront.
According to his attorney, John Markey, Rafael will have sold off all of his fishing empire as part of a settlement agreement with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and will be out of the fishing industry forever.
“The Rafaels committed to NOAA to sell their fishing assets and they did that,” Markey said Friday.
Rafael has less than two years left to serve of a 46-month prison sentence. He pleaded guilty to falsely labeling fish, smuggling cash, tax evasion and falsifying federal records as part of a scheme to catch and sell fish for which he didn’t possess the necessary quota.
In August, he reached a settlement agreement with NOAA to pay more than $3 million in fines, sell off his fleet by December 31, 2020, and leave the fishing industry forever.