American Mariculture Co-Founder and CEO Robin Pearl was arrested on charges of fraud, money laundering, and grand theft on 14 November.
According to the booking from the Lee County Sheriff’s Office in the U.S. state of Florida, Pearl was arrested and charged with fraud to obtain property above USD 50,000 (EUR 43,450) in value, money laundering in excess of USD 100,000 (EUR 86,900), and grand theft in excess of USD 100,000. For the three charges, Pearl posted USD 45,000 (EUR 39,100) in total bail.
A hearing on Pearl's case is scheduled for 15 December.
Pearl co-founded U.S.-based shrimp-farming company American Mariculture, along with American Penaeid and Sun Shrimp Gourmet, in 2013. His arrest comes not long after he put out a call for donations to restore Sun Shrimp’s operations in Florida, citing “millions in damages” to the company’s production facilities.
Pearl, in a post on LinkedIn, said the company had launched a GoFundMe campaign for USD 250,000 (EUR 217,200) to restore and upgrade its facilities.
“This will get us shipping fresh, chemical-free Sun Shrimp nationwide again,” Pearl wrote.
Pearl said the company had seen no aid to rebuild its farms from the U.S. government.
The three companies declared bankruptcy in early 2025, citing the lower sales caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent hurricane damage caused by Hurricane Ian, coupled with a downturn in the global shrimp market – along with USD 10 million (EUR 8.7 million) in expenses related to trademark infringement lawsuits against American Penaeid.
That bankruptcy fell through in July 2025 after U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Caryl Delano accepted a motion to dismiss the bankruptcy case from the trustee appointed to the company.
Trustee Mary Ida Townson filed the motion on the debtors – American Mariculture, American Penaeid, and Sun Shrimp Gourmet – citing their failure to obtain insurance, the failure to provide monthly operating reports in a timely manner, and failure to pay quarterly fees.
“To date, the Debtors have not filed monthly operating reports for May 2025 and are now overdue,” the trustee wrote in their motion in late June.
A response to the motion from a landlord for the company claimed that since filing for bankruptcy, the companies had “made no meaningful progress toward proposing or confirming a plan of reorganization.”
