They may have poached the most expensive lobsters in history.
Three men who illegally harvested rock lobsters off the coast of South Africa should pay a whopping $54.9 million in restitution to that country, according to Manhattan federal Magistrate Judge Andrew Peck.
The men had pleaded guilty in 2004 to smuggling huge quantities of rock lobsters to the United States between 1987 and 2001, and all three were sentenced to time in the slammer.
A judge at the time refused to order restitution. But an appeals court later ruled that “South Africa has a property right in illegally harvested rock lobsters.’’
The Pew Environment Group said Peck’s calculation of the seafood’s worth, which remains subject to district-court approval, is the largest under US conservation law.