June 23, 2017 — Business appeared to be carrying on as usual Friday at Lou-Joe’s Fresh Seafood, a day after agents from the Internal Revenue Service and two other government agencies visited the small fish processing plant.
Workers were cutting fish on Friday inside the 3,800-square-foot plant at 24 Washburn St., New Bedford, near where Interstate 195 crosses the Acushnet River. Fish trucks were coming and going from the loading docks.
An employee in the office said he was not the owner and declined to comment on the situation.
On Thursday, about a dozen officials from the IRS, Massachusetts Environmental Police, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration visited the plant. An IRS spokeswoman told The Standard-Times the IRS employees were on official business, but she would not say anything further.
A corporate document filed with Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin’s office shows two people listed as officers of a now-dissolved corporation by the name Lou-Joe’s Fresh Seafood, Inc.: Luis Martins as president and treasurer, and Mary Martins as secretary. Both are listed at the same address: 17 Bertrand’s Way, Acushnet.
The business summary on the secretary of state’s website shows an involuntary dissolution of the corporation in 1998.
Laurie Flynn, director of corporations for Galvin, said the corporation was dissolved for failing to file the required annual reports after 1990. But operating without corporation status is not illegal as long as the business does not use “Inc.” in the name, she said. Lou-Joe’s could be operating as a sole proprietorship or partnership, for example, she said.
Neither Luis Martins nor Mary Martins could be reached at the business or at the house on Bertrand’s Way in Acushnet.