Standard-Times
Carlos Rafael, who went to federal prison in November 2017 after pleading guilty to over 20 offenses, including false labeling of fish and falsifying federal records, may be spending his first day out of federal custody since 2017.
Thursday, March 4, is his projected release date, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons website. Rafael, 68, was scheduled to report to prison on Nov. 6, 2017. He was sentenced to 46 months, which would have meant a September 2021 release date.
Rafael was assigned to the Federal Medical Center Devens a federal prison for male inmates that need specialized or long-term medical or mental health care.
On April 30, 2020, he was transferred to community confinement under the Philadelphia Residential Reentry Management office, said Emery Nelson, a spokesperson for the bureau.
It used to be where Dartmouth and the SouthCoast held all their special events. See how fast the Hawthorne Country Club has fallen over the past five years.
NEW BEDFORD After being forced to leave business at sea following a federal settlement, Carlos Rafael, in yet another move, appears to be setting roots on land.
The winning bidder of the former Merchants National Bank property that sold at auction last month was Bliss Investors LLC, a company managed by Rafael s family.
The historic structure, which sits at the intersection of William and Purchase streets in downtown New Bedford, sold at auction in late January.
Justin Manning, president of JJManning Auctioneers, said in an email last month that the property sold for $770,000. There were nine registered bidders, but he said they do not disclose their names.
NEW BEDFORD Two former employees of Buyers and Sellers Exchange (BASE) are alleging owners and brothers Raymond and Richard Canastra were aware of and involved in Carlos Rafael s falsifying of fish quotas, according to two affidavits filed last week as part of an ongoing lawsuit.
In their written statements, signed in September 2020 under the penalties of perjury, former BASE employees Peter Medeiros and Nelson Couto allege Raymond Canastra and Rafael instructed them to destroy and falsify paperwork detailing the species and quantity of fish caught an important record that must be submitted weekly to the federal government.
Medeiros, who said he worked at BASE from 2006 to 2018 as general manager overseeing unloading of vessels, wrote the Canastra brothers instructed him to handle the unloading of Rafael s groundfish boats differently from all other groundfish boats starting in 2010.
At the October meeting, Markey stated that Solrac LLC has been owned by the Rafael family for 20 years and in addition to Rafael-DeMello, Hathaway and his wife, Ivonilde Rafael Hathaway, and a third sister are also principals.
The Rafael family has yet to buy the property, which is still owned by Quinary Properties LLC, whose principals are the Aghai family, according to the meeting minutes, but Markey said Solrac LLC has a purchase and sale agreement for the property.
While Rafael himself isn’t mentioned at the meeting or listed under the LLC, he discussed the project with an editor from Dartmouth Week, along with plans to restore the Hawthorne Country Club on Tucker Road.