Return-path: [log in to unmask] From: [log in to unmask] Full-name: AOL News Message-ID: <[log in to unmask]> Date: Mon, 26 Apr 1999 12:46:55 EDT Subject: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: Clam Poachers Sentenced in... MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Unknown (No Version) Reply-To: [log in to unmask] To: undisclosed-recipients:; U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service: Clam Poachers Sentenced in Connection With Federal Lacey Act Conviction of Mississippi Valley Shell Company State Conservation Agencies to Share More Than $166,000 in Restitution ST. PAUL, Minn., April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- A four-year investigation by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and wildlife officers from Iowa and Illinois into illegal freshwater mussel trade in the Midwest ended recently with the sentencing in federal court of two men convicted for felony violations of the Lacey Act, the federal law that prohibits illegal trade in protected wildlife. Donald Vizzini of Gold Hill, Ore., and Craig A. Smith of Erie, Ill., were the last of eight individuals sentenced in connection with the conviction of the Mississippi Valley Shell Company (MVS) of Muscatine, Iowa. The sentences bring the total penalties assessed to the company and individuals to $257,750 in fines, $166,739 in restitution, 63 months imprisonment, 34 years of probation and $1,425 in crime victims' funds. Vizzini was sentenced April 9 in federal court in Oregon to three years probation, 100 hours of community service and ordered to pay $11,900 in restitution and $50 to the crime victims' fund. Smith was sentenced March 26 in federal court in Iowa to 31 months in prison, two years probation and ordered to pay $28,839.75 in restitution and $50 to the crime victims' fund. Smith also faces additional confinement of up to 105 months following his conviction for witness retaliation for assaulting one of the witnesses in the MVS case. Sentencing is set for June. The restitution funds will be divided equally between the Illinois, Ohio and Minnesota departments of natural resources and the North Dakota Game and Fish Department. The investigation began in the spring of 1995 when Illinois conservation officers learned that freshwater mussels were being harvested illegally from the Rock River and sold to the MVS, the second largest mussel exporter in the United States. Investigators later learned that mussels were also being taken illegally from waters closed to harvesting in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Michigan and Ohio and sold to MVS. MVS purchased the mussels knowing they had been taken from waters where state laws prohibited their harvest. The shells, which form the basis for an estimated $5 billion international cultured pearl industry, were then laundered through Muscatine, Iowa and shipped to Japan. In addition to violating various state laws, the illegal harvests violated the Lacey Act, the federal law that prohibits interstate commerce in wildlife protected under state or federal law. Freshwater mussels are some of the most endangered species of animals in North America. Of the approximately 300 species of known mussels, 30 are already extinct and another 70 are either threatened or endangered. Due to their large size, and thickness, mussel shells from the Midwest are in great demand in Asia. Most of the shells end up in Japan, where small pieces are cut from the shells, and implanted into oysters to produce cultured pearls. More than 120,000 documents recovered from MVS and from defendant's residences in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Oregon exposed a lucrative, illegal market for freshwater mussels in the Midwest. As commercial quantities of shells became scarce in legal areas of the region, prices soared from $1-$4 to as much as $22 per pound at the time of the investigation. MVS and its suppliers began looking for any source of shells, legal or illegal, which led them to the protected mussel beds in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois and North Dakota. MVS President, "Butch" Ballenger, personally directed clammers to harvest shells from closed waters. The harvests typically occurred at night, making detection by conservation officers more difficult. State-required paperwork was then falsified by using fictitious names and harvest locations to make the shells appear to have originated in legal waters. On April 24, 1998, a federal Grand Jury in Des Moines, Iowa, indicted the defendants on a total of 72 felony violations of the Lacey Act. These counts included a total value of mussels exceeding $1 million. Special Assistant United States Attorney Jeff Lang led the prosecution team. Sentences for those convicted in the case include: Mississippi Valley Shell Company (MVS), Muscatine, Iowa, was ordered to pay a fine of $250,000, restitution of $40,000, five years probation and $800 to the crime victims' fund. MVS President Darwin Lee "Butch" Ballenger, 59, Muscatine, Iowa, was sentenced to 24 months in prison, two years probation, and ordered to pay restitution of $40,000 and $100 to the crime victims' fund. MVS Vice President Cheryl Roate Ballenger, 41, Muscatine, Iowa, was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to pay a $7,500 fine and $25 to the crime victims' fund. Jerry Althiser, 48, of Hillsdale, Ill., was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to pay restitution of $5,000 and $100 to the crime victims' fund. He is also prohibited from clamming for life. Jeremie Cooper, 24, Patch Grove, Wis., was sentenced to eight months confinement (four months to be served in home confinement), two years probation and ordered to pay restitution of $40,000 and $100 to the crime victims' fund. He is also prohibited from clamming during probation. Harry Schultz, 40, Muscatine, Iowa, was sentenced to five years probation, 120 hours of community service and ordered to pay restitution of $1,000 and $100 to the crime victims' fund. Gregory Meyers, 36, Brownsville, Minn., was sentenced to five years probation, and ordered to pay $100 to the crime victims' fund. He is also prohibited from clamming for life. NOTE TO THE PUBLIC -- Recent studies indicate that more than $100 billion annually is generated in the U.S. economy directly from activities related to our public fish and wildlife resources. The illegal wildlife trade is second only to the trade in illegal drugs, also estimated to be in the billions of dollars annually, worldwide. The public can help stop wildlife law violations by reporting suspicious activities to state and federal wildlife law enforcement officers and by refusing to purchase products made from protected species of wildlife. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting, and enhancing fish and wildlife and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 93-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System comprising more than 500 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands, and other special management areas. It also operates 66 national fish hatcheries and 78 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state wildlife agencies. For more information about the Service, please visit our web site at: http://www.fws.gov/r3pao/ SOURCE U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service CO: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service ST: Minnesota IN: ENV SU: LAW 04/26/99 12:45 EDT http://www.prnewswire.com To edit your profile, go to keyword <A HREF="aol://1722:NewsProfiles">NewsProfiles </A>. For all of today's news, go to keyword <A HREF="aol://1722:News">News</A>.