Top guy end up getting off with a $50 fine I hear


"A state biologist known as Wisconsin’s “sturgeon general” is facing jail for his alleged role in a lucrative racket that prosecutors say saw valuable fish eggs marked for fertility research funneled instead for caviar production.

Ryan Koenigs, a senior fisheries biologist at Wisconsin’s department of natural resources, lied to conservation wardens investigating allegations that numerous employees were secretly supplying the eggs to a network of caviar processors, according to a criminal complaint filed in Wisconsin’s Calumet county this week. He was suspended on Thursday.


As a kickback, one supervisor allegedly told the wardens, department staff would receive jars of sturgeon caviar – which can cost hundreds of dollars per ounce – and eat it openly during meetings with colleagues. Others told the detectives their reward was moonshine.

Koenigs, the state’s top sturgeon biologist since 2012, was interviewed by investigators in January 2020 and denied knowledge of the alleged sturgeon scam.

He insisted that workers were only taking eggs for fertility or other scientific research, the complaint states, and could not explain why fresh eggs were placed in coolers marked with the name of a caviar producer.

Later, the prosecutors allege, after the production of his mobile phone records, Koenigs admitted to speaking with the caviar processor in calls he had previously denied had taken place. He could not recall what he spoke to them about, the lawsuit alleges, “but he was sure it wasn’t sturgeon eggs”.

The lawsuit said Koenigs told investigators that his staff were taking eggs from five to six sturgeon to the unidentified processors annually, but only after research, and instead of throwing them away. He said he accepted 20 to 30 jars of caviar annually from processors and dispersed them to as many as a dozen co-workers for their personal use, according to the complaint.

His false statements added “hundreds” of hours to the investigation, which began in 2017, the complaint said: “That could have been dramatically shortened had he told investigators the truth.”


Ronald Bruch, the retired director of the department’s fisheries bureau, told the wardens staff had received caviar from processors for years and ate it at meetings. Two processors told investigators that staff would give them eggs and one made 65 pounds of caviar from them in 2015.

Koenigs faces up to nine months in prison and $10,000 in fines if convicted of a single misdemeanor count of obstructing a conservation warden. Nobody else has yet been charged, but authorities say the investigation is continuing.

Migratory river fish populations plunge 76% in past 50 years
Efforts to reach Koenigs for comment on Friday were unsuccessful. Sarah Hoye, a spokesperson for the Wisconsin department of natural resources, sent the Guardian a brief statement. “Although the department does not comment on ongoing investigations, we can confirm Ryan Koenigs is on administrative leave effective Thursday following an internal investigation,” she wrote.


News of the scandal comes as Wisconsin’s annual 16-day sturgeon spearing season begins Saturday on the state’s Winnebago lakes system. More than 12,000 spearing licenses were purchased in 2020, although the “harvest” was capped at just above 2,000.

According to the criminal complaint, Koenigs was lead coordinator for the department’s spearing season, and oversaw about 60 department staff handling registration.

Also on Administrative leave.

https://www.wbay.com/2021/06/11/sturgeon-biologist-convicted-caviar-case/

So a token fine and a paid vacation? More and more it feels like the government privileged vs the citizen peons.

Opportunist not criminals as I see it.

Anyone around sturgeon spearing for any length of time knew this was going on. Even the former DNR legal council knew it was going on and helped design the program to keep legal so know you are only getting part of the story.

So if it added hundreds of hours, then the wardens were not too sharp. Lol. That said, he made a poor decision for not just coming clean right away. A lot of other folks did. There is no way around it. He has paid dearly for that decision.

But my issue is why are we trying to get someone in trouble for trying to utilize a resource, when it is legal to throw away. They were trying to get folks to use more of the resource. Same with all the rest caught up in it.

For those folks that say there is a double standard, have the other members of the public part of Caviergate been convicted with harsher penalties? I know the older couple that tried to bribe federal wardens with sturgeon eggs had their charges dismissed. See what I did there?

A manufactured scandal . The only thing scandolous I see is that those eggs that are left over from whatever sampling they were taking will be wasted for ever now. I would also bet that some of those jars of eggs went to bringing political attention and good will to the sturgeon program . A token like serving locally sourced caviar at a meeting with legislative committees is a priceless PR tool .

Good points man. I guess what bothered me from reading the article (only info i have) was how it seemed that authority was given light treatment. I agree..... Resources shouldn't be wasted.