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August 29, 2013

Lobster co-op manager, seafood dealer hit with $1M lien

A judge in the Maine Business and Consumer Court agreed to grant a $1 million lien on the properties of a southern Maine seafood dealer and lobster cooperative manager in response to allegations that they conspired to steal and sell large quantities of lobster.

The Bangor Daily News reported Justice Andrew Horton issued the decision Aug. 20, determining it likely that the Spruce Head Fishermen’s Cooperative would recover civil lawsuit judgments of over $1 million against J.P. Shellfish Inc., based in Eliot, its former owner John Price and co-op managers Robert and Cindy Thompson.

The paper reported that the Thompsons' attorney said his clients plan to appeal the lien attachment, which was granted in response to a lawsuit Spruce Head filed earlier this year, alleging that Thompson was paid more than $1 million for lobster and crab sales from December 2006 to October 2012.

Criminal allegations that truck drivers from J.P. Shellfish paid Thompson cash for lobsters from the cooperative were thrown out earlier this year, but the state’s business court found the cooperative had evidence to support its claims that the shellfish company’s former owner John Price was a willing participant in illicit sales from the cooperative.

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