MANHATTAN (CN) — A Second Circuit panel ruled Wednesday that wild fish do not constitute “property” for purposes of a False Claims Act complaint, affirming a lower court’s dismissal of a $2 billion case brought by a pair of private U.S. citizens who accused a Canadian seafood conglomerate of illegally harvesting from U.S. waters many millions of dollars’ worth of fish to which it was not entitled.
“Here, the interest that the government retains in wild fish and game is exercised through its regulatory power, and not by virtue of the government’s ownership of them, and that interest (though broad and important) does not transform the regulatory power into a property right,” U.S. Circuit Judge Joseph F. Bianco wrote in the panel’s 32-page ruling, affirming the dismissal of the False Claims Act claims in the Southern District of New York.
Under the False Claims Act, individuals can sue on behalf of the government in a qui tam action. If the case is won, the individual shares any money recovered.
The two U.S. citizens — relators W. Benson Chiles and Chris Manthey — initially filed the qui tam case under seal in July 2021 on behalf of the U.S. government, accusing the Saint John, New Brunswick-headquartered Cooke Seafood of defrauding the United States through violations of the American Fisheries Act.
They argued Cooke circumvented regulations of the American Fisheries Act by setting up a sham company in the name of Seth Dunlop, the inexperienced nephew of the foreign company’...
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jeanine Pirro this week found out there is a trade-off between loyalty to President Donald Trump and being loyal to reality. The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia — a fie...