Saving Seafood

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

 

Seafood exec escapes jail time

July 14, 2017 — A senior sales executive at a Gloucester seafood processing company avoided jail time, but will spend the next six months under home confinement and must pay restitution of $25,879 after his federal sentencing Thursday for tax fraud.

Richard J. Pandolfo, 71, who lives in North Andover and has been an executive vice president at National Fish & Seafood on Parker Street, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Richard Stearns to a year’s probation, with six months to be served in home confinement.

The judge also assessed a fine of $5,000 and ordered Pandolfo to pay restitution to the IRS for the amount he had failed to pay on “supplemental income” he had received from the company and former National Fish executive and part-owner Jack Ventola between 2008 and 2012.

Pandolfo was indicted in June 2016 by a federal grand jury on four counts of filing false tax returns. As part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, the charges were reduced to a single count. But he still faced a federal prison term of up to three years and a fine of up to $100,000 in addition to the restitution when he stood for sentencing Thursday.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Pandolfo failed to pay federal tax on about $90,000 of the $95,000 in supplemental income he received from Ventola from 2008 to 2012. According to the original indictment, some of the supplemental pay went directly to Pandolfo, while other payments went to a shell interior design company established in the name of Pandolfo’s wife. Pandolfo’s wife was not charged in the indictment.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

National Fish executive makes deal in fraud case

April 24, 2017 — A senior executive at Gloucester-based National Fish & Seafood pleaded guilty to one count of tax fraud Thursday in U.S. District Court in Boston and is set to be sentenced in July, the Justice Department announced.

Richard J. Pandolfo, 71, of North Andover, was indicted by a federal grand jury last June on four counts of filing false federal tax returns between 2009 and 2012.

The charges were reduced to one count as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors. Pandolfo, an executive vice president at the East Gloucester seafood processor, faces up to three years in prison, one year of supervised release, a fine of $100,000 and restitution of $25,879 to the Internal Revenue Service.

Prosecutors charge Pandolfo failed to pay federal tax on about $90,000 of the $95,000 in “substantial supplemental income” he received from former National Fish & Seafood executive and part-owner Jack Ventola from 2008 to 2012.

According to the original indictment, some of the supplemental income went directly to Pandolfo, while other payments went to a shell company established in the name of Pandolfo’s wife, who is not named in the indictment, through another shell company controlled by Ventola.

Read the full story at the Gloucester Times

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