A federal appeals court has denied a request for a stay in sentencing by a Rhode Island man who faces three years in prison for tax evasion connected to his seafood company.
Billie Russell Schofield was sentenced last Friday to three years behind bars. He pleaded guilty in 2019 of failing to pay taxes on hundreds of thousands of dollars in income made by Northern Pelagic LLC, a New Bedford, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based company he worked at and partly owned.
Northern Pelagic, also known as NORPEL, is a vertically integrated seafood company focused on Atlantic herring, Atlantic mackerel, and squid, with two fishing vessels and a freezing facility, according to the company website.
Schofield served as general manager of NORPEL between 2002 and 2015. The Rhode Island man also earned money by brokering fish transactions and other activities, according to the 2018 criminal indictment against him.
Between 2008 and 2018, Schofield obstructed federal tax collectors in a variety of ways, including filing no personal tax returns nor paying any taxes for the years 2009 through 2016.
When he did interact with the Internal Revenue Service, Schofield filed fraudulent tax forms, sometimes seeking refunds to which he was not entitled. His elaborate schemes included falsely claiming he was not a U.S. citizen, making frivolous tax arguments, and sending numerous bogus checks for tens of thousands of dollars the IRS. He also prevented the delivery of IRS tax levy notices to his employer, among other things.
Schofield’s unreported income for the tax years 2010 through 2016 was approximately USD 731,000 (EUR 601,000), according to court papers. The money came from business partnerships, commissions from a Canadian fishing company, and proceeds from the cultivation and sale of marijuana, according to news release from the U.S. Attorney’s office.
As part of his scheme to avoid paying taxes, Schofield in 2013 created a company with an Alaska address, Sundown Services. Over the next few years, Schofield asked that payments owed to him be made payable to Sundown Services to conceal his income. He asked a girlfriend to open a bank account in the name of Sundown Services, into which he had her deposit checks made payable to Sundown Services. The checks were actually income payments to Schofield for services rendered, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Schofield’s illegal maneuvers caused the U.S. Treasury to lose more than USD 350,000 (EUR 288,000) in taxes owed.
Besides three years in prison, Schofield is ordered to spend three years on supervised released, pay USD 364,222 (EUR 299,337) in restitution and a USD 5,000 (EUR 4,100) fine.
Schofield did not respond to a request for comment from SeafoodSource, and NORPEL had no comment on the issue when contacted by SeafoodSource on Tuesday, 12 January.
Photo courtesy of American Writers and Artists Institute
