BOSTON - A Lowell man was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Boston in connection with the theft of more than $440,000 from a Spain-based seafood and fish distributor for which he served as the United States representative.
Jorge Manuel Silva, 59, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to 15 months in prison, two years of supervised release and restitution of $440,398. In March 2016, he pleaded guilty to two counts of bank fraud.
Silva was an independent contractor for Seaport Fish Co., a corporation established to distribute fish and seafood in the United States by Freiremar Group, headquartered in Spain. Silva was responsible for coordinating sales to Seaport customers, collecting customer payments, and depositing those payments into Seaport’s account at Bank of America. From July 2008 through June 2010, Silva instead diverted more than $903,000 in Seaport customer checks to two accounts he held at Enterprise Bank in Lowell.
On occasion, Silva reimbursed Seaport with checks drawn on his Enterprise accounts several weeks or months after he had deposited the customer checks into those accounts. On other occasions, he used Seaport funds to pay personal expenses and the expenses for his other businesses. In this fashion, Silva diverted $440,398 of Seaport funds to his own uses.
United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz; Harold H. Shaw, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Field Division; and Shelly Binkowski, Inspector in Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, made the announcement today. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sandra S. Bower of Ortiz’s Economic Crimes Unit.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
