Owner, Crew Indicted for Attempt to Sink Vessel, Collect $400,000

CAPE MAY – An Aug. 3, 2009 Coast Guard release reported the rescue of four persons from the sinking 75-foot fishing vessel Alexander II about 80 miles southeast of this port. The last sentence read, “The incident is under investigation.”
To hear radio transmissions between the Coast Guard during the rescue mission, click here: http://www.capemaycountyherald.com/article/53119-coast+guard+rescues+four+cape+may
Two years later, on Wed., June 15, a federal grand jury in Camden returned an indictment charging the vessel’s owner and crew with conspiring to sink the vessel to collect a $400,000 insurance payment.
According to U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman the indictment charges the boat’s owner, Scott Tran, 38, of Cherry Hill, his “right-hand man,” Manh Nguyen, 58, of Philadelphia, and crew members Erik James, 39, of Goshen, and Christopher Martin, 39, of Wildwood, with one count of conspiring to destroy the boat, the Alexander II.
Nguyen, James and Martin are also charged with one count of attempting to destroy the boat. Tran and Nguyen were arrested on June 15 by FBI agents, and were to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Karen Williams in Camden federal court.
James and Martin remained at large.
On the day of the incident, the Coast Guard received a call at about 3:30 a.m. from a crew member aboard the Alexander II reporting they were taking on water and abandoning ship. A rescue helicopter crew from Coast Guard Air Station Atlantic hoisted all four people from their life raft.
Due to adverse weather, the rescue helicopter crew took all four to the Cape May County Airport in Erma where they were transferred to waiting medical personnel. No injuries were reported.
According to the eight-page indictment:
The four defendants engaged in a scheme to sink the Alexander II so that Tran could collect on an insurance policy with State National Insurance Company.
In July 2009, Tran hired Henry “Mike” Anholt as the captain of the Alexander II. Tran and Nguyen then solicited Anholt to sink the Alexander II on the high seas in return for payments of about $2,000 each to him and his crew.
Anholt then recruited a crew, including James and Martin, to help him sink the boat.
On Aug. 2, 2009, the Alexander 11 left Cape May. Although the Alexander II “had little fuel, ice, food; and other supplies for a lengthy fishing trip, the ship’s log was falsified to read that more than 50 fish, weighing a total of approximately 3,000 pounds, had been caught.”
Once the Alexander II reached a point approximately 86 miles southeast of Cape May, the captain and his crew worked together to sink it. After they had filled a portion of the vessel’s interior with seawater, “while ignoring the bilge alarms that were sounding, and made no use of the ship’s pumps, which were in good working ocondition to clear the ship of water, they sent a distress signal to the U.S. Coast Guard and then abandoned the Alexander II together in a life raft.”
The Coast Guard soon found the Alexander II and rescued the captain and crew, but found no fish aboard the boat or in the hold. The captain and at least one crew member gave false statements to the Coast Guard regarding the incident, the indictment stated.
After the Coast Guard returned the captain and crew to shore, Nguyen, on behalf of Tran, discussed with the captain and crew what happened during the attempted sinking, giving them cash payments. “Those payments were less than the previously offered and agreed to sums,” the indictment continued.
“It was a part of the conspiracy that on or about Aug. 3, 2009, after the defendant Erik James received less than the full payment from the defendant Manh Nguyen, the defendant Manh Nguyen, the defendant Erik James and his girlfriend, and Henry “Mike” Anholt drove to Philadelphia to the office of the defendant Scott Tran,” it stated.
Then, Nguyen went into the office and returned with “additional U.S. currency to Henry “Mike” Anholt, which he then gave to the defendant Erik James.”
Nguyen also allegedly gave Anholt more cash toward the money owed to him.
Tran then submitted a claim to his insurance broker in order to collect $400,000, the limit of the insurance policy. After the claim was denied, Tran filed a lawsuit in the New Jersey Superior Court in Camden County, seeking damages of $400,000, including damage to the Alexander II and loss of use of the Alexander II.
Each of the two counts in the indictment carries a maximum potential penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the amount of loss caused by the offenses.
Fishman credited special agents of FBI, Atlantic City Resident Agency, Newark Division, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Michael B. Ward, and investigators with the Cape May County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor Robert L. Taylor, for the investigation leading to the Indictment.
The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Howard Wiener of the U. S, Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Camden.
The charges and allegations contained in the indictment are merely accusations, and the defendants are considered innocent unless and until proven guilty.