Judge Lewis Kaplan
Defendants pleaded guilty, under the Lacey Act, in connection with an elaborate scheme to illegally harvest South Coast and West Coast rock lobsters from South African waters. They forfeited $13.3 million to the United States. Second Circuit found South Africa entitled to restitution under the Mandatory Victim Restitution Act. Defendants objected to a magistrate judge's recommendation that they pay $54.8 million in restitution, jointly and severally, to South Africa. Although a report calculated South Africa's losses from overharvesting South Coast lobsters at $32.4 million, there was no evidence that any South Coast lobsters were imported to or intended for the United States. The court found restitution proper for the $29.49 million in losses caused by defendants' importation of West Coast lobsters contrary to U.S. law. Reducing that amount by the $7 million they already paid South Africa, defendants were required to pay South Africa $22.4 million. South Africa was entitled to restitution for lobster imported into the United States in furtherance of defendants' conspiracy to import. There was no legal basis to award South Africa restitution for lobsters neither shipped to the United States nor taken for the purpose of shipment to this country.
