A federal inspector general's investigation found evidence of "overzealous or abusive conduct" in multiple actions against the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction by agents and attorneys of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Those acts included using "false information" to obtain a search warrant, "unauthorized" entry to the auction — a complex of offices, auditorium, cold storage and unloading docks on Gloucester's Inner Harbor — and attempting to impose a fine more than 10 times greater than warranted by the facts as determined by a judge.
The report concluded that the government had decided to "target" the business.
U.S. Commerce Department IG Todd Zinser's report, which runs more than 100 pages overall and was released in full two weeks ago, also cites a pattern of "arbitrary and untimely" action with a lack of "transparency" in the government's pattern of selective enforcement regarding a technical requirement for fishermen to have a so-called "yellowtail" authorization letter.
Read the complete story from the Gloucester Times.