Fishing Company of Alaska, fish buyer have ties

On Nov. 14, 1980, Karena Adler, a young woman from New Jersey, married Masashi Yamada, a middle-aged Japanese businessman.

Their union in Honolulu ended in divorce, which was finalized in 1984. Their business ties, however, have endured and both have profited from a fortune in seafood pulled from Alaskan waters.

Adler, now 55, is the owner of The Fishing Company of Alaska, the Seattle company that operated the Alaska Ranger, which sank a year ago in a tragedy that has sparked a Coast Guard investigation. The company still operates six other factory ships that fish for mackerel, rock fish and other species in the Bering Sea.

Adler's former husband, Yamada, controls Anyo Fisheries, the company that buys millions of dollars worth of the seafood caught each year by her company.

Anyo Fisheries, based in Japan, also operates its own fleet of fishing vessels outside U.S. waters. The company lost one of its ships — the Anyo Maru No. 1 — when it capsized off the coast of Russia in 1999. Twelve of the 36 crew died and the Japanese Coast Guard accused Anyo of inadequate safety measures, according to the Japan Economic News Wire.

The U.S. Coast Guard is also investigating the conduct of several Anyo employees who work as advisers known as fish masters aboard Adler's factory ships.

Adler and Yamada, 85, both guard their privacy, and there has been little published over the years about their business relationship.

Anyo is only a small piece of a much larger business empire controlled by Yamada. The Yamada Group includes some 40 companies in real estate, manufacturing, fisheries and other sectors, according to a brief — and rare — biography published by Vanderbilt University of Tennessee, which honored him in 1998 with an award for supporting the U.S.-Japan Center on campus.

Yamada also is a founder of Yamada Corp., a trading company involved in defense contracting in Japan. Its corporate office was raided in 2007 amid charges of fraud, bribery and other wrongdoing, according to accounts in Japan Today and other Japanese newspapers.

Yamada's tie to Anyo was disclosed last May as a footnote in a public hearing involving the defense contracting and other business dealings. A former Yamada Corp. executive said the fishing company was controlled by the Yamada Group.

In addition to his vast business holdings, Yamada is known for his passion for golf. In 1995, he and a professional partner took first place in the celebrated AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am tournament.

But a sharp-eyed U.S. golf official concluded that Yamada had submitted a greatly inflated handicap that had given him an unfair advantage. Further investigation found that the handicap had been submitted by a pro who worked at a golf club that Yamada owned.

Yamada was stripped of his amateur title.

"It's a violation of the spirit and the intent of the game. He was asked for an explanation, but there was no reply," said Dean Knuth, the former U.S. Golf Association official who investigated Yamada.

Hal Bernton: 206-464-2581 or hbernton@seattletimes.com