Saving Seafood

Facing “too many legacy issues,” National Fish and Seafood closes

May 13, 2019 — National Fish and Seafood announced that it was immediately ceasing operations on Friday, 10 May, marking the end of its long history in the seafood business and putting 150 employees out of work.

Founded in 1979, the Gloucester, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based seafood processor, which sells the Matlaw’s stuffed clam line, had been reeling financially since owner Pacific Andes filed for bankruptcy in 2016. NFS put itself up for sale, and several companies – including Red Chamber – considered purchasing it, but ultimately never did.

“Unfortunately, despite great strides we made in improving operating performance, National Fish just had too many legacy issues that prevented us from consummating a sale,” NFS President Todd Provost said in a press release.

In January 2019, NFS demanded payment from Pacific Andes, which owes NFS USD 30 million (EUR 28 million), according to court documents. Plus, NFS was paying out legal fees for its trade secrets lawsuit against Tampa Bay Fisheries for the latter half of 2018 and early 2019, before both suppliers agreed to settle the case in mid-March. And former NFS President Jack Ventola was convicted of fraudulently diverting money from the company and then not paying taxes on the income.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource

 

National Fish exec appeals prison term

January 18, 2019 — Jack Ventola, the imprisoned founder and president of Gloucester-based National Fish & Seafood, is appealing his two-year prison sentence, claiming he received a more severe punishment than one of his convicted co-conspirators.

Ventola, 71, is in the midst of his 24-month sentence at the Federal Medical Center Devens he started last July. He was convicted April 27 in U.S. District Court in Boston of failure to pay taxes on $2.9 million he fraudulently diverted from National Fish in schemes that ran from 2006 to 2013.

As part of his plea deal, Ventola admitted conspiring with two other National Fish executives — senior sales executive Richard J. Pandolfo and head of operations James Corbett, who died in 2013 and was never criminally charged —and National Fish accountant and board member Michael Bruno in several schemes to defraud the IRS and majority National Fish owner Pacific Andes.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

Ex-fish exec’s fraud sentence: 2 years in prison, $1.2M restitution

September 21, 2018 — Another former National Fish & Seafood executive is on his way to federal prison. But not for anything he did while director of sales at National Fish.

James R. Faro, 62, who worked at Gloucester-based National Fish from 2012 until approximately January, was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court to two years in federal prison and ordered to pay $1.21 million in restitution.

Faro was convicted of conspiring to commit bank fraud at Marlborough-based Sea Star Seafood Corp., the frozen seafood distributor he founded in 1983.

As part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, Faro admitted that he and John Crowley, the chief financial officer at Sea Star, conspired to defraud the Commerce Bank & Trust Company of Worcester by lying about the value of Sea Star’s outstanding accounts receivable to increase its borrowing limits.

Jack Ventola, the founder and president of National Fish, currently is serving a two-year sentence at the minimum-security Federal Medical Center, Devens in central Massachusetts after pleading guilty to failure to pay taxes on $2.9 million he “fraudulently diverted” from National Fish’s majority owners.

Ventola also was ordered to pay $1.07 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.

Ventola admitted to conspiring with two other National Fish executives — senior sales executive Richard J. Pandolfo and an unnamed head of operations — and National Fish accountant and director Michael Bruno to defraud the IRS and Pacific Andes in a scheme involving a temporary labor company.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Daily Times

In plea deal, former National Fish president likely to pay $1m in restitution

December 29, 2017 — Former National Fish and Seafood president Jack Ventola will likely pay $1 million in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and face jail time after defrauding his former company, which is majority owned by Hong Kong-based conglomerate Pacific Andes International Holdings (PAIH).

Ventola was arrested on Nov. 23, 2015, in connection with failing to pay taxes on more than $2 million in income he earned from 2006 to 2009, according to the US attorney’s office for the district of Massachusetts. He was indicted on three counts of filing false tax returns and one count of conspiracy to defraud the IRS.

Ventola and two others, former National Fish senior sales executive Richard Pandolfo, and Michael Bruno, an accountant who didn’t work for the company but served on its board, face charges that include tax fraud in connection with an alleged scheme that reportedly charged the company for labor services never provided.

Pandolfo and Bruno pleaded guilty but have yet to be sentenced. Ventola had initially pleaded not guilty but later signed a plea agreement with prosecutors that was filed on Dec. 19. As part of that agreement, Ventola admitted to seven counts of making and subscribing a false tax return while prosecutors dropped three more serious charges: conspiracy, wire fraud and mail fraud.

For the charges he admitted to Ventola could face a maximum of three years in prison, three years supervised release, a $250,000 fine and restitution.

However, prosecutors will instead recommend a lesser prison sentence, a to be determined fine and $1.073m in restitution. Judge Douglas Woodlock is slated to sentence Ventola on March 27.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

 

Gloucester seafood executive indicted on tax fraud charges

June 9, 2016 — The U.S. Attorney’s office in Boston has indicted Richard J. Pandolfo, a senior executive at Gloucester-based National Fish & Seafood, on four counts of filing false federal tax returns between 2009 and 2012.

The Pandolfo indictment, unsealed Wednesday night, comes seven months after Jack Ventola, then president and part-owner of National Fish & Seafood, stepped down following his federal indictment on conspiracy to defraud the United States government by failing to pay taxes on about $2 million in income he received between 2006 and 2009.

The Ventola case has not yet gone to trial, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office in Boston.

According to the federal indictment, Pandolfo, 70, of North Andover, received about $95,000 in “supplemental income” from Ventola — some directly to Pandolfo and others to his wife — and did not accurately report or pay taxes on about $90,000 of it.

The indictment also alleges that other payments were made to a shell company established in the name of Pandolfo’s wife, who is not named in the indictment, and were directed to it through a shell company controlled by Ventola.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

Feds: Seafood company owner failed to pay taxes on $2 million

November 23, 2015 — The head of a major seafood processing company based in Gloucester was indicted Friday on charges he failed to pay taxes on more than $2 million in income he earned between 2006 and 2009, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston.

Jack Ventola, 68, who lives in Ipswich and serves as president and part owner of National Fish & Seafood Inc., located at 11-15 Parker St. and 159 E. Main St., was indicted on three counts of filing false tax returns and one count of conspiracy to defraud the federal Internal Revenue Service.

The indictment alleges that Ventola’s company utilized the services of a temporary labor company called Continental Labor Team Inc., which Ventola and a co-conspirator — also an executive with National Fish & Seafood — controlled.

The Gloucester-based National Fish & Seafood is a division of Pacific Andes Group, a national seafood supplier to major retailers, distributors, institutional food service and restaurant chains across the United States.

Read the full story at The Gloucester Times