BANGOR, Maine - Newly unsealed documents in U.S. District Court allege numerous violations of state and federal law by one of Maine's most well-known elver dealers.
Last spring, federal authorities raided Bill Sheldon's home in Woolwich and two motel rooms in Ellsworth as part of Operation Broken Glass, a four-year, federal investigation into the illegal harvesting, transport and export of elvers from Maine to South Carolina.
Search warrant affidavits allege that undercover ferderal agents, posing as fishermen, harvested elvers illegally with Sheldon's encouragement, and then sold them to the longtime dealer for eventual export to Asia.
A little over a year ago, Bill Sheldon, the owner of Kennebec Glass Eels, sat in the predawn darkness in the cab of his pickup truck, his face illuminated by the screen of a laptop computer. The elver season had just begun and Sheldon was parked in his familiar spot, in an Ellsworth parking lot, waiting for the next fisherman to show up.
"I'm buying eels at $750 a pound. I mean, that would have been a big price 20 years ago," he said.
But not that big, compared to the prices Sheldon and other dealers began paying in 2011. That March, a tsunami damaged aquaculture operations in Japan, one of the largest suppliers of American eels, in a region where the slithery fish has long been a dietary staple. Supply dwindled, and by the end of the 2012 season, elevers in Maine were going for as much as $2600 a pound.
"A couple years ago, it was $12 million in 10 weeks: That's $1.3 million a week I was passing to the fisherman," Sheldon said back then.
Less than a week after this interview took place, investigators with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service raided two motel rooms that served as Sheldon's base of operations in Ellsworth. The search affidavit, signed by a federal judge, was unsealed and made public for the first time this week.
Walt McKee is Sheldon's lawyer. "I think that the affidavit lays out a lot of information that leads us the believe that there is an investigation that is still continuing," McKee says. "We don't know anything about any charges or anything along those lines at all."
The affidavit alleges that the surging demand in the elver market, and the sudden, financial windfall it offered elver fishermen and dealers, led Sheldon to operate illegally. South Carolina and Maine are the only two states where elver fishing is legal. Sheldon had harvester's and dealer's licenses in both states.
In February of 2012, a South Carolina official, the affidavit alleges, told federal investigators about a tip that Sheldon was buying eels caught in a river where elver fishing is prohibited. Around the same time, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife agent, acting undercover as a fisherman, began interacting with Sheldon.
After a period of legal dealings, the affidavit alleges that Sheldon began encouraging the undercover agent to fish for elvers illegally and sell them to him.
"I did not know that any eels that we bought were harvested illegally," says Mitch Feigenbaum. Feigenbaum runs Delaware Valley Fish Company. On one occasion, the affidavit alleges that an undercover agent met Sheldon at a Virginia rest stop off I-95, where he sold him elvers purchased in North Carolina. Federal officials then trailed Sheldon to Delaware where he sold the haul to Delaware Valley, a major elver exporter.
Feigenbaum, who has cooperated with federal authorities on enforcement issues in the past, says Delaware Valley is not a target in the probe. "When these allegations were made, I was surprised. I've had many conversations with Mr. Sheldon and he's assured me his operation are all above board."
Under the a federal law called the Lacey Act, it's illegal to sell, transport or export glass eels that were taken in violation of state law. Bill Sheldon is still a licensed elver dealer in Maine. But that could change.
Jeff Nichols is a spokesperson with Maine Department of Marine Resources. He says the department's commissioner, Patrick Keliher is reviewing the case. "He is going to be looking at information from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the coming week to determine whether or not he's going to consider a license suspension."
Bill Sheldon's attorney, meantime, says he has had no contact with the U.S. Attorney's office about when, or if, charges may be filed in the case.