Why have we not heard more about this case?
Green Bay Press Gazette Article...parts in bold are about the walleye illegally taken from Little Bay de Noc.
Warrant offers background on Dan's Fish case
Samantha Hernandez, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin 7:50 p.m. CST November 15, 2014
A federal search warrant has shed light on why Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource agents descended on Dan's Fish Inc. in Sturgeon Bay Nov. 5.
According to the federal search warrant application filed Nov. 3 in U.S. District Court Eastern District of Wisconsin, Dan Schwarz, the owner of Dan's Fish Inc. and connected businesses, knowingly violated the Lacey Act, a federal wildlife statute. Schwarz allegedly "knowingly received, acquired, purchased, sold, transported or exported" walleye and lean lake trout over $350 and knowingly "made or submitted a false record involving the sale or purchase of fish valued at over ($350), which had been or were intended to be transported in interstate commerce."
Since the news broke, multiple agencies have been tightlipped about why DNR officials visited Dan's Fish. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the DNR referred all questions to the U.S. Attorney's office for the Western District of Michigan.
Kaye Hooker, public information officer for the U.S. Attorney's Western District, did not return calls asking for comment. Schwarz also did not return calls; when the DNR and other agencies came to the business last week, the company released a statement that it "will cooperate fully with the ongoing investigation to root out any regulatory violations" and that "no local restaurant or wholesale buyer is part of this regulatory issue."
According to the 31-page search warrant application, USFWS Office of Law Enforcement Special Agent Steve Stoiniski had been investigating "illegal trafficking of fish resources from the Great Lakes."
USFWS, as part of its investigation, established the "covert business" Upper Peninsula North Fish Co. on the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) Reservation around August 2012. According to the warrant, the investigation was prompted by "numerous sources" stating lake trout, lake sturgeon and walleye were being harvested illegally in large numbers.
The storefront primarily bought wholesale fish but also sold resale. During the investigation agents posing as North Fish employees made more than 550 purchases of fish. Approximately "400 purchases involved fish that were illegal in some manner."
The storefront closed in November 2013, but agents continued to pose as employees and make fish purchases until September 2014.Agents kept audio recordings from many of their dealings with Schwarz and at least one of his associates. Agents allege he knowingly purchased illegally caught walleyes, lean lake trout and other fish.
The federal agents began selling to Dan's Fish in October 2012, according to the warrant. Between Oct. 29, 2012, and May 21, 2014, agents sold to Schwarz's company on approximately 51 occasions. This amounted to 94,223 pounds of fish, of which 44,500 pounds were illegal. Illegal fish refers to fish "sold or transported in violation of either tribal or Michigan state law." Schwarz's company paid $46,000 for the illegal fish.
According the application some of the fish sold was purchased from commercially licensed fisherman, which is illegal under KBIC tribal law. On one occasion Special Agent Chris Aldrich met with Schwarz's employee Andy Stuth in St. Ignace, Mich., to pick up illegal walleye. In a recorded conversation between Aldrich and Stuth, the agent reportedly told Stuth "the fisherman he buys from are not allowed to sell walleye."Stuth allegedly responded, "It's a touchy subject. It's different if they are killing thousands and thousands ..." Aldrich later tells Stuth not to say where he got the walleye from. Stuth allegedly told him, "We have to tell the DNR every month what we get and they never say anything." Stuth goes on to say he did not think buyers would get in trouble but the fisherman who take the fish would.Agents also sold Dan's Fish untagged trout. The illegal trout were also purchased from KBIC tribal fisherman. Between May 3, 2013, and July 11, 2013, agents sold to Dan's Fish on 16 occassions.
Of the 11,256 pounds of fish sold, approximately 3,600 pounds were "not tagged as required by the KBIC tribal code."
The complaint also alleges illegal walleye was purchased from an unlicensed wholesaler. Some of that fish made it to Dan's Fish. The person selling the fish was not authorized to sell fish wholesale in Michigan. On April 29, 2013, agents brought the walleye it had purchased from the unlicensed wholesaler to Dan's Fish. Aldrich purchased 485 pounds of walleye from the wholesaler.
During the April 29 delivery Schwarz told Aldrich that some of the walleye he purchased from Michigan earlier in the year had been investigated as part of a Michigan DNR sting. According to the search warrant, Schwarz said when the MDNR asked him about the walleye he said "I just buy fish ... I don't know where they came from, I don't know how they got them, I don't care." During that same conversation Aldrich told Schwarz the walleye came from the Escanaba, Mich., area but told Schwarz if anyone asked he should say they were from Naubinway, Michigan. Schwarz allegedly said, "Ah, OK." Later in the conversation while discussing where Aldrich's fish came from, Schwarz allegedly told Aldrich "You know, as a fish buyer, really, the less you know about that the better."
Among the items authorities seized were documents for cold storage, invoices, handwritten notes documenting transactions, export documents, and mirrored images from computers and phone hard drives.
