Legal News

The Curious Case of King Crab King Arkadi Gontmakher

By Ashby Jones

It’s the first day back from vacation, much of which was spent in sunny SoCal. It’s frigid on the streets of NYC. And in several hours, we’ll be reminded, yet again, that neither TCU nor Boise State has a shot at the national title. In other words, we’re not at out most, well, chipper today. But at least we have this going for us: We’re not in our 27th month of extended stay in Russian prison.

Such a fate has befallen a Bellevue, Wash., businessman and U.S. citizen named Arkadi Gontmakher. In Sept. 2007, Gontmakher was imprisoned in Moscow and accused by the Russian government of involvement in a criminal ring that poached king crab from waters off the Kamchatka Peninsula. But more than two years later, Gontmakher, originally from the Ukraine, has yet to be brought to trial. Click here for the Seattle Times story.

“We don’t know why he has been detained for so long without trial, but what is certain is that his civil rights under Russian law have been violated,” said Patton Boggs’s Joseph Brand, an attorney representing Gontmakher’s family.

Gontmakher is the founder of Bellevue-based Global Fishing, which, according to the Seattle Times story, in 2007 was the largest importer of Russian king crab sold in groceries across the United States. Russian prosecutors have accused Gontmakher of money laundering and conspiring with others to poach millions of pounds of crab. Gontmakher says he’s innocent of all charges.

Brand says Russian legal codes call for the case to be tried within 18 months of detention, and Gontmakher already has been imprisoned for more than 27 months. “Like any Russian citizen, Mr. Gontmakher deserves access to the fair and timely administration of justice,” Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wa) wrote in a letter sent to the president in July. “I therefore request that you raise the issue of Mr. Gontmakher’s continued detention with the government of Russia.”

Richard Verma, a State Department official who responded to Murray, said the U.S. Embassy in Moscow had sent a diplomatic note to Russian authorities urging that the matter be brought to trial.

Russian prosecutors say Gontmakher’s company contracted with Russian crab skippers who had legitimate quotas, and then vastly exceeded those quotas to deliver illegal crab to Global Fishing, according to an Aug. 21 article in Seafood.com News, which has tracked the progress of the case in Russia.

In the meantime, Gontmakher’s supporters have created the Save Arkady Gontmakher Web site to publicize his case.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on January 04, 2010 (boomark / email).