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More on the crime boss....
"Read my lips: #^&#^&#^&#^& you"
Rafael is a cutthroat capitalist who is perpetually at war with someone: regulators, competitors, environmentalists. He battles, forever with an eye on his profit margin. Of course, he also has a history of legal entanglements.
In the early 1980s, he was thrown in jail for four months and 14 days for federal tax evasion. He operated his then fledgling business through phone calls from the federal pen. Looking back, he admits he filed his taxes incorrectly. Or, more accurately, in his own words: “I had no #^&#^&#^&#^&ing clue about that #^&#^&#^&#^&ing #^&#^&#^&#^&.”
He was taken to federal court again in the mid-90s. This time he faced charges of price-fixing. He was staring down a lengthy prison term but insisted the matter go to trial. He says he was targeted by others in the industry because he was so successful and ended up spending $1.5 million on his legal defence, which was ultimately successful. He still relishes telling off the federal prosecutor after he got off. “I told him, 'You are a #^&#^&#^&#^&ing #^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&, you and the rest of the #^&#^&#^&#^&ing mother#^&#^&#^&#^&ers, so #^&#^&#^&#^& you, mother#^&#^&#^&#^&er. Read my lips: #^&#^&#^&#^& you.'” It might as well be his gravestone epitaph.
He’s had other legal headaches: he was accused of falsifying documents in order to obtain fishing permits. He has fought federal regulators, sometimes successfully, when they seized a catch illegally or fined his boats without cause. His boats have been cited for fishing for scallops in a closed area. In 2011, he made national headlines when the feds seized an 881-pound tuna that one of his boats had caught. They said it was caught illegally, but Rafael disagrees. He says that single fish could have fetched hundreds of thousands of dollars on the open market. Last year, after the local fire department cited his fleet for fire safety violations along the docks, Rafael threatened to up and move his vessels to Maine or Rhode Island. He has compared federal regulators to the Gestapo. And so on and so forth.
We are walking along the pier where his fleet is docked. The grinding of power tools can be heard from one of his 120-foot, green-and-white vessels. Rafael says one of his draggers brought in 27,000 pounds of fish last night. He says that within the last ten years, his debt at one point was $35 million. He considers the future and the prospect of his business being further curtailed by federal regulators. Facing million-dollar losses and a decaying industry, he is defiantly, absurdly obstinate.
“That’ll be a fight to the death. I’ll have them doing somersaults up there. They’re #^&#^&#^&#^&ing with the wrong guy because when I’m right, I’m right. I don’t #^&#^&#^&#^& around.”
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