Attempt to make poacher pay R480m restitution

The restitution could be as much as $62m (R480m) if a US appeal hearing agrees that Bengis and his partners in crime are liable to pay restitution and if it accepts a 'conservative' estimate by a Cape Town consultant of the damages they inflicted on SA's fishing industry. A Cape Argus report says another estimate of the total damage to the industry was 'at least R696m' - and court papers state that the actual quantity of over-harvested rock lobster was likely to have been 'significantly greater' than that used for calculations. Then Hout Bay Fishing Industries company head Bengis, his son David, and US business partner Jeffrey Noll were arrested in August 2001 by a joint SA-US law enforcement operation. SA arrest warrants were issued for Bengis but were never served because he stayed out of the country. After a plea bargain agreement with the Scorpions in April 2002, he returned briefly to SA when Hout Bay Fishing Industries was fined R12m and forfeited several fishing vessels and a container of seafood. The three men were later arrested in the US, and in March 2004 they pleaded guilty to charges under America's Lacey Act - a specialist piece of legislation designed to stop any illegally obtained natural products from anywhere in the world being traded in the US. If restitution is ordered and paid, the US may give the money to SA. Full Cape Argus report