NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA - JEFFREY M. DESALVO, age 35, a resident of Picayune, Mississippi, was sentenced Thursday, Dec. 13, 2018 after previously pleading guilty to three counts of unlawful use of a merchant mariner license in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2197.
U.S. District Judge Nanette Jolivette Brown sentenced DESALVO to serve 24 months in prison and ordered him to pay a $300 special assessment.
According to court documents, on February 4, 2015, DESALVO entered into a settlement with the U.S. Coast Guard wherein he agreed to surrender his merchant mariner credentials in lieu of having them permanently revoked. In connection with the settlement agreement, DESALVO submitted an affidavit to the U.S. Coast Guard in which he stated that his credentials had been destroyed, when, in truth and fact, his credentials had not been destroyed. In addition to the foregoing, DESALVO illegally used his suspended credentials to obtain work as a boat captain for four different companies that operated on the Mississippi River.
U.S. Attorney Strasser praised the work of the United States Coast Guard in investigating this matter. Assistant U.S. Attorney Spiro G. Latsis is in charge of the prosecution.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
