January 26, 2018 — Two of the Gloucester waterfront’s heavy hitters are squaring off in federal court in a lawsuit with at least $710,000 at stake — and potentially much more.

Kristian Kristensen, owner of the Cape Ann Seafood Exchange auction and Zeus Packing on Rogers Street, is suing longtime Gloucester fisherman Giuseppe “Joe” DiMaio, alleging DiMaio has failed to repay the approximately $710,000 balance remaining on two corporate and personal loans made to him by Kristensen and his related businesses.

Kristensen is seeking the remaining balance on the loans, as well as “costs, expenses and attorneys’ fees.” The suit also says Kristensen will seek “damages resulting from defendants’ abrupt and unjustified repudiation of their contract.”

It claims the auction suffered more than $400,000 in lost auction fees and has lost “an important supplier of fish” to the auction.

The suit, filed Jan. 19 in U.S. District Court in Boston, names DiMaio as the defendant, along with separate corporations he controls which own four Gloucester-ported groundfish vessels — the F/V Capt. Joe, the F/V Lucy, the F/V Tyler and the F/V Orion.

It alleges that DiMaio and Kristensen entered into an exclusive agreement in March 2012 in which Kristensen, through his Zeus Packing business, lent DiMaio $175,000 in return for DiMaio’s pledge to exclusively land all of his catches and dock all of his boats at the longtime Gloucester seafood auction.

“The parties operated under the exclusive sales agreement for over five years,” the suit alleges. “In July 2017, without notice or warning, defendants suddenly stopped selling the fish they caught on their vessels to plaintiffs and instead began selling said fish to plaintiffs’ competitors.”

Neither Kristensen nor DiMaio could be reached Thursday for comment. Their respective attorneys also did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times