
Wisconsin's top sturgeon expert was charged with lying about a caviar scheme.
Prosecutors charged the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources’ top sturgeon expert Thursday with obstructing an investigation into allegations that his employees have been funneling the valuable fish’s eggs to a network of caviar processors under the guise of a scientific study.
Ryan Koenigs faces one count of obstructing a conservation warden, which is a misdemeanor punishable by up to nine months in jail and $10,000 in fines. Online court records did not list an attorney for him.
DNR spokeswoman Sarah Hoye said Koenigs was placed on leave Thursday but declined further comment. He could be the first of many to be charged in what investigators allege was a wide-ranging scheme involving multiple DNR employees and caviar processors.
Sturgeon are massive, bony fish, ranging from 7 to 12 feet long. Their earliest fossils date back 200 million years. Their eggs are highly coveted for caviar processing. Wisconsin, a state that prides itself on outdoor traditions such as hunting and fishing, holds a sturgeon spearing season every February on the Lake Winnebago system near Oshkosh, about 90 miles northwest of Milwaukee. This year’s season is set to begin Saturday.
According to the criminal complaint, Koenigs has served as the DNR’s top sturgeon biologist since 2012 and is the lead coordinator for the department’s spearing season, which is held every February on the Lake Winnebago system. He oversees the roughly 60 DNR workers who staff registration stations during the season.
The DNR and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service began a joint investigation in 2017 into allegations that DNR workers had been illegally selling or trading sturgeon caviar in violation of state and federal law. The investigation culminated in January 2020 and uncovered multiple people who were illegally selling, purchasing, bartering or trading sturgeon eggs, the complaint states.
Investigators interviewed Koenigs in January 2020. He told them that DNR registration workers collect eggs as part of a fertility study. If a spearer wants the eggs back, the workers won’t collect them or they’ll return them after they’ve been studied, Koenigs said.
Investigators asked him why workers at a registration station were putting eggs in a cooler marked for a caviar processor. Koenigs said he didn’t know the processor, that staff shouldn’t be taking custody of eggs and that he didn’t know the processor kept a cooler at the station.
He said he had never called the processor. When the investigators showed him phone records confirming that Koenigs had in fact done so in May 2018, he said he didn’t know what he and the processor discussed, but that he was sure it wasn’t sturgeon eggs.
He insisted he didn’t know that any DNR workers were collecting eggs and giving them to members of the public who weren’t involved in department research. He added, however, that if a spearer asks for eggs to be taken to a processor as part of the research, DNR workers will do so and that processors sometimes thank DNR staffers with jars of caviar.
Investigators interviewed Kendall Kamke, a DNR fisheries supervisor, the same day. He said he was guilty of taking eggs to a processor “here and there” and that processors would give him jars of caviar in return. One processor gave him moonshine, he said.
Investigators also uncovered official DNR logs showing that caviar was going to a processor, according to the complaint. A former DNR fisheries supervisor named Ronald Bruch told them staff had received caviar from processors for years and ate it at meetings.
Two processors told investigators that staff would give them eggs; one of them said he made 65 pounds of caviar out of them in 2015. He and Koenigs were both nervous about the arrangement because it was prohibited, he said. A DNR sturgeon registration employee told them that one year, they threw out all the eggs because wardens were asking too many questions about them, the complaint states.
Investigators searched Koenigs’ home in June and seized his DNR-issued phone. They discovered it had been erased in April, four months after they interviewed him, and reset without the department’s permission.
Last week, Koenigs told investigators that his staff were indeed taking eggs from five to six sturgeon to processors annually after research rather than throwing them away. He also said he accepted 20 to 30 jars of caviar annually from processors and disbursed it to as many as a dozen co-workers for their personal use, according to the complaint.
His false statements added “hundreds” of hours to an investigation “that could have been dramatically shortened had he told investigators the truth,” the complaint said.
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Corky Atkinson, of Malone, measures a sturgeon he had just speared on Lake Winnebago in Malone, Wis., Friday, Feb. 16, 2018. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
A sturgeon season with limited visibility

"What a thrill," said Corky Atkinson, after he had just speared a sturgeon Friday morning on Lake Winnebago near Pipe about a mile from the lake's southeastern shoreline. Atkinson, 72, who lives in nearby Malone in northeastern Fond du Lac County, has been spearing for about 50 years. This fish turned out to be an 87.2-pound, 73.4-inch female packed with 4.5 gallons of eggs.
A sturgeon season with limited visibility

That's not a real largemouth bass being held by Corky Atkinson, of Malone. It's actually a Big Mouth Billy Bass with the electronics removed that he successfully used Friday on Lake Winnebago to attract an 87.2-pound, 73.4-inch sturgeon that he speared at about 10 a.m.
A sturgeon season with limited visibility

Jeremy Eldred adjusts his spear after accidentally knocking it off its perch. Spears hang from the ceilings of ice shacks and above holes for quick access when a sturgeon appears below.
A sturgeon season with limited visibility

Jeremy Eldred, 34, of North Fond du Lac, takes a break from fishing Friday after spending three straight hours waiting for a sturgeon to come though his hole. Eldred, who has been spearing for 12 seasons, was set up in 16 feet of water but could only see down about eight or nine feet.
A sturgeon season with limited visibility

Jeremy Eldred of North Fond du Lac watches the water for sturgeon to spear in his shanty on Lake Winnebago near Pipe. Spearing hours are from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. each day of the 16-day season.
A sturgeon season with limited visibility

The sturgeon spearing season on Lake Winnebago brings out thousands of shacks, pickup trucks and hopeful spear-fishing fanatics.
A sturgeon season with limited visibility

Dustin Schaefer, 49, left, and Randy Gerner, 32, both of New Holstein, look out for sturgeon in Gerner's shanty on Lake Winnebago near Pipe. Schaefer speared his first fish in 25 years on Thursday and was helping Gerner, who was still waiting for success. Cloudy water from runoff and algae blooms has limited visibility for spearing.
A sturgeon season with limited visibility

Dan Wagner, of St. Cloud, holds up his homemade, 2-foot-long, stainless steel sturgeon decoy he used Friday on Lake Winnebago. Decoys can take all shapes and sizes and even include compact discs hung from wire.
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Spears, made by Corky Atkinson, of Malone, lean against his shanty during sturgeon spearing season on Lake Winnebago in Malone, Wis., Friday, Feb. 16, 2018. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
A sturgeon season with limited visibility

Betty and Dan Wagner, of St. Cloud, a village in northeastern Fond du Lac County, share a laugh as they tell a fishing story while waiting for a sturgeon to pass through their hole on Lake Winnebago. Betty has never speared a fish but Dan has "seven or eight" fish in about 50 years of spearing.
A sturgeon season with limited visibility

Ben Gonnering, a student in the natural resource technician program at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, weighs a sturgeon caught at a DNR registration station in the parking lot of Jim & Linda's Lakeview Supper Club near Pipe. The fish, speared by Corky Anderson, back left, of nearby Malone, weighed in at 87.2 pounds. Atkinson's biggest came in 1990 and weighed 115 pounds.