March 6, 2013 — Until recently, few of the fishermen who work out of the docks of Gloucester Harbor talked about James A. Bordinaro. But on March 1, Bordinaro became a household name here after he was pardoned by President Obama for his part in bid-rigging and falsely certifying fish from Canada as caught in US waters and sold to the government more than 25 years ago.
Bordinaro, one of 17 people recently pardoned by Obama, could not be reached for comment. After he entered a plea agreement with the government in 1991, he received a 12-month jail sentence, and his family-owned fish processing company, Empire Fish, was fined $355,000. The company, which had stood on Harbor Loop for decades, eventually went into bankruptcy and was sold.
White House spokesman Keith Maley declined to comment on Bordinaro, but said the group of 17 had earned the right to be pardoned.
“As he has in past years, the president granted these individuals clemency because they have demonstrated genuine remorse and a strong commitment to being law-abiding, productive citizens and active members of their communities,” Maley said in a prepared statement.
According to a 1991 Globe report, Bordinaro’s company was one of six fish-processing plants involved in a scheme to fix prices and falsely certify Canadian-caught fish. Six other fishing executives from Gloucester, Boston, New Bedford, and Rockland, Maine also pleaded guilty to similar charges.
Back in the swashbuckling fishing days of the 1970s when Gloucester boats brought back massive catches of groundfish such as cod, haddock, and flounder, Bordinaro was a familiar face around the harbor and a spokesman for the fishing industry.
According to court documents, Bordinaro began to conspire with Francis J. O’Hara, of F. J. O’Hara and Sons of Rockland, Maine, to fix bids for fish sales to the Defense Personnel Support Center, a purchasing center for the Department of Defense, in 1981. According to the government, the arrangement continued until 1989.