Insurance Scheme Results in 46-Month Sentence for Cherry Hill Man

A Cherry Hill man who hired a crew to sink his fishing boat in a botched insurance scheme will spend 46 months in federal prison after being sentenced in U.S. District Court in Camden Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Scott Tran, 40, who previously pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiracy to destroy a vessel on the high seas, tried to scam $400,000 out of his insurance company in 2009, and even went so far as to sue following the denial of his claim, when he tried to have his boat, the Alexander II, sunk off the coast of Cape May.

Instead, Tran's hired captain, Philadelphia resident Manh Nguyen, and the hired crew abandoned the boat after an unsuccessful attempt to scuttle the ship 86 miles southeast of Cape May and sent a distress call to the U.S. Coast Guard, who rescued Nguyen and the crew in the Aug. 2, 2009 incident.

The Coast Guard found no fish on the boat or in its hold, despite the ship's log indicating about 3,000 pounds of fish had been caught. The falsified log and a dearth of supplies, including little food, fuel and ice for a lengthy fishing trip, were all points raised by prosecutors in court as evidence of the scheme.

Tran, who gave the crew cash and offered Nguyen $10,000 and each crew member $2,000 to sink the Alexander II, admitted to emailing Nguyen and the crew during the voyage and telling them to sink the fishing boat. Their attempts only damaged the boat and partially filled it with seawater.

When Tran's claim of $400,000—the maximum of his policy—was denied by his insurance company, he sued in Superior Court in Camden County, claiming damage to the Alexander II and the loss of his use of the boat.

Tran will have to pay $280,000 in restitution and a $75,000 fine on top of his prison sentence, and will also be subject to three years of supervised release, per the sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge Renee Marie Bumb.

Nguyen and the crew members, Erik James, 41, of Cape May Courthouse, and Christopher Martin, 41, of Cape May County, were all previously sentenced. Nguyen is serving two years after his sentencing last year, and James and Martin are both serving 30-month prison sentences.