BOSTON, Massachusetts – Two big questions remain in the much-publicized case of Carlos Rafael, the so-called “Codfather” of the New England seafood industry: How much prison time, if any, will he receive for repeatedly lying about his catch to federal authorities, evading taxes and other crimes; and who will take over his sizable fishing fleet?

Rafael owns 30-something vessels, an unknown number of skiffs, and some 50 state and federal permits to catch cod, haddock and many other fish found off Georges Bank and in the Gulf of Maine. He maintains one of the biggest scallop harvesting operations in one of the biggest scallop-producing regions of the world [...]