NEWARK, N.J. - The owner of a Maine seafood company who admitted conspiring to conceal the harvesting of nearly 80,000 pounds of scallops off the coasts of New Jersey and Massachusetts has been sentenced to jail.
Seafood wholesaler D.C. Air & Seafood and 42-year-old Christopher Byers of Winter Harbor, Maine, pleaded guilty in December to conspiring with six fishing boat owners to prepare false reports. The boat owners pleaded guilty earlier.
Byers was sentenced Thursday to 30 months in prison and Judge Walls ordered him to pay $520,371 in restitution.
The company also agreed not to harvest scallops during a five-year probation period.