SOLD

The (Former) Idaho Aquarium

Portland, Oregon

Vince & Ammon Covino

The Quest Begins

The Idaho Aquarium was opened by Ammon Covino with his brother as co-founder Vince Covino in 2012. In no time the aquarium was facing citations

In 2011 brothers Vince and Ammon Covino began their relentless Quest for wealth in the United Stated opening their first interactive petting zoo and aquarium, The Boise Idaho Aquarium .The monthly violations begin piling up immediately. Then in 2012 Ammon and Vince opened another for-profit aquarium, The Portland Aquarium in Oregon.

February 9, 2012 Vince Covino consented to a $5,000 fine and 30-day suspension from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority for borrowing money from a client to purchase a home, in violation of its rules. Vince didn’t register or associate as a broker-dealer agent after his suspension ended.

April 2013 The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service confiscated three puffins from the Idaho Aquarium, which didn’t have a federal migratory bird permit. The aquarium had obtained four birds, but one died before the others were taken away. The facility had applied for a permit in June in an attempt to recover the birds, but the application was denied because the staff had no experience in caring for puffins, there was no adequate puffin enclosure, and a permit couldn’t be issued to anyone with a federal wildlife violation. Vince Covino was then issued a warning for code violations related to the building of The Austin Aquarium, including housing animals in the building without a certificate of occupancy and installing water tanks without obtaining prior site-plan approval on July 18, 2013.

Florida Indictment

Federal agents arrested Ammon Covino, the president of the Idaho Aquarium, and Chris Conk, the director of the Idaho Aquarium on December 02 2013. Both pled guilty in federal court to conspiring to illegally procure spotted eagle rays and lemon sharks worth several thousand dollars from the Florida Keys for their exhibition. Additionally, Conk previously pleaded guilty to smuggling protected coral for the aquarium. According to court records, Ammon sought to purchase and ship wildlife without the necessary permits.

When confronted about this by the seller (who reported the encounter to the feds) Covino insisted that the seller just go ahead and provide the animals without the necessary paperwork. “Who gives a shit, man?" said Ammon.

Ammon Covino was sentenced to a year in prison followed by two years of supervised release during which he was barred from any"involvement, possession, display, transportation, exhibition, purchase, or sale of wildlife," by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida. Chris Conk, was given a reduced sentenced after cooperating with authorities, four months in prison for his role in bringing the lemon sharks and spotted rays to Idaho.

"Ammon Covino, (39 at the time, of Meridian, Idaho,) and Christopher Conk, 40, of Middleton, Idaho, were arrested today for violations of the Lacey Act, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. A federal grand jury in the Southern District of Florida returned a sealed indictment on November 8, 2012, charging the defendants with conspiracy to violate the Lacey Act and violating the Lacey Act by purchasing Florida protected marine life in interstate commerce.

The four count indictment, which was unsealed today, alleges that Covino and Conk purchased four spotted eagle rays (Aeobatus nairnari) and two lemon sharks (Negaprion brevirostris) for approximately $6,300. The marine wildlife were allegedly harvested illegally and without a permit.

Covino and Conk appeared this afternoon before Chief U.S. Magistrate Judge Candy W. Dale at the federal courthouse in Boise. The court ordered the defendants to appear on March 15, 2013, before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lurana S. Snow, at the Sidney M. Aronovitz Federal Courthouse in Key West, Florida.

The defendants are each charged with one count of Conspiracy and three counts of Illegal Purchase and Sale of Fish/Wildlife. Each count is punishable by up to five years in prison, a maximum fine of $250,000, and at least three years of supervised release. The indictment also includes a forfeiture count." U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Idaho

After Ammon's initial arrest he contacted his nephew Peter Covino IV, asking the younger family member to "eliminate evidence" that would connect charges against him. Peter was sentenced in September 2013 to 180 days home detention with electronic monitoring and two years supervised release. A Florida federal jury convicted Peter of obstruction of justice in connection with his uncle’s conspiracy case. Peter called the seller and asked them to cancel a marine life shipment to Boise, refund the credit card and to erase all emails, text messages and other evidence associated with Ammon Covino, according to court documents and testimony. Federal agents identified the caller as Peter C. Covino IV, the son of Ammon Covino’s brother, Peter C. Covino III. During his trial testimony the younger Covino admitted that he made the calls at the direction of Ammon Covino.

Federal prosecutor Thomas Watts-Fitzgerald wrote in a sentencing memo filed with the court "offense occurred in the context of an industry that is extraordinarily difficult to effectively police and which appears all [too] ready to cut corners and ignore legal requirements to secure additional resources." The prosecutor expressed concerns regarding future repeat offenses.

Ammon Still Involved

February 24, 2016 A federal judge ordered Ammon Covino back to prison after he remained engaged in activities at the Austin, Portland, and San Antonio aquariums—a violation of the terms of his parole. The warrant indicated that, when discovered, Ammon had lied to his probation officer about the violation. Then on November 30, 2016 Ammon was caught being involved in the opening two SeaQuest aquariums—in Layton, Utah, and Las Vegas, Nevada—a federal judge ordered him back to prison again because he had violated his parole.

"Ammon is a talented and creative builder who was assigned with the design and building" of both the Portland and Austin aquaria, reiterated Vince Covino in an email to the Chronicle. "His actions with respect to the Idaho [s]hark order without a permit are unconnected to Austin Aquarium, which has always had every permit required for our animals," he wrote. "It was never intended that he work at Austin or Portland after opening day. I hired marine biologists and other qualified aquarists to run the aquariums."

The Idaho attorney general released the findings of an investigation into the founder of The Idaho Aquarium, Ammon. The April 2, 2015 report noted that the aquarium had engaged in questionable use of charitable funds and poor recordkeeping. Recordkeeping practices were so poor that it was impossible to determine to what extent the company’s charitable assets had been misappropriated. Ammon had been paid excessive compensation and benefits in 2012, when he dedicated substantial time to opening The Portland Aquarium. Ammon received payments totaling $140,500, in addition to thousands of dollars’ worth of employment benefits, including payments for cell phones, gas, insurance, food, and other personal expenses. The company engaged in deceptive solicitations for charitable contributions to support its mission and to fund specific projects, including a river otter exhibit. The Idaho Aquarium allegedly purchased animals for the Portland Aquarium, of which Ammon had a 40 percent stake. Ammon used money from the Idaho Aquarium to purchase a car and subsequently took that vehicle with him when he moved to Austin, Texas.

The Idaho Quest Ends

Under a court order, Ammon Covino and his fellow Idaho Aquarium co-founder, Christopher Conk, can no longer be associated with Idaho Aquarium. The Aquarium of Boise, a nonprofit corporation with no relationship to Idaho Aquarium, now owns and operates the aquarium at Cole and Franklin roads. When the new nonprofit took over in October 2013, the aquarium underwent extensive restructuring, including a new board, bylaws, business plan, animal care protocols and accounting system. The new board of directors hired Nancy Vannorsdel, a former banking executive and former CEO of the Boise Metro Chamber of Commerce, to run it . Vannorsdel and her assistant, Joni Sullivan, remodeled the aquarium and added more exhibits, a classroom and education programs. They paid off debt and increased attendance, which had dwindled after Covino’s and Conk’s indictments. Sullivan took over as director in December 2014.

On March 14, 2017 The Idaho Department of Finance fined Vince Covino and SeaQuest $5,000 for failing to disclose his previous securities disciplinary action while selling membership interests in SeaQuest to investors. Vince had raised investment money for new aquariums in three other states. Vince operated aquariums in Utah and Nevada and plans one in Texas at the time.

Vince violated the Idaho Uniform Securities Act last fall by failing to disclose the 2011 disciplinary action to two investors who bought nearly a million dollar’s worth of membership interests in his new company, SeaQuest Interactive Aquariums, the Idaho Department of Finance said. On March 14 Vince Covino agreed to the fine, accepted the state’s account of the events and pledged to follow the law by signing an agreement and order written by the Department of Finance.

In November, SeaQuest sold 35 membership interests to an investor for $700,000. The next month, SeaQuest sold additional 20 memberships to a different investor for $250,000. Idaho law classifies those memberships as securities.

In a presentation to the investors, SeaQuest provided the following information about Covino: “Having been an investment adviser with a portfolio of over $165 [million], Vince has been consulting and working with entrepreneurs for two decades. Bringing his financial expertise and operations leadership, the first three years of operations aquariums has brought about over $3 [million] in profit and return to investors.” He said nothing about his disciplinary history. On Dec. 5, Covino filed a form saying SeaQuest paid Jon Ashton, of Eagle, a $35,000 fee for finding investors for the SeaQuest memberships. The state said Ashton is not a registered agent in Idaho. Ashton “voluntarily returned” the $35,000 to SeaQuest on March 3, 2017, according to the state. Covino said he is now complying with state rules.