Source: Office of United States Attorneys
MIAMI –The owner and captain of a scuba charter vessel has been sentenced to more than eight years in prison after a federal jury found him guilty in March 2025 of seaman’s manslaughter (both as the vessel’s owner and captain), lying to the U.S. Coast Guard, and fraudulently obtaining Covid-19 pandemic relief funds.
U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon sentenced Dustin Sean McCabe, 50, to 100 months in prison—above the advisory Sentencing Guidelines—citing McCabe’s reckless conduct and the horrific circumstances and nature of the victim’s death.
In early March 2020, McCabe purchased a 48-foot vessel, named it Southern Comfort, and falsely claimed on Coast Guard forms that it would be used for recreational purposes. Instead, McCabe intended to operate the Southern Comfort to run paid scuba charters, refitting it himself for commercial use.
On March 28, 2020, McCabe took paying passengers on a scuba trip aboard the Southern Comfort. During the trip’s two dives, the Southern Comfort experienced significant mechanical malfunctions, including one propeller unexpectedly engaging, loss of steering, and the vessel running aground. In one incident, the port-side propeller activated while the vessel was in neutral during a diver pickup, pulling a diver toward the propeller before the diver narrowly escaped injury.
Despite these dangerous malfunctions, McCabe operated another paid scuba trip the very next day without reporting the prior day’s incidents to the Coast Guard, warning passengers of what had happened the day before, or repairing the vessel.
During this second trip, the same propeller malfunction occurred as the victim and her spouse were boarding from the water. The propeller pulled the victim and her spouse into it, killing her. Following the fatality, McCabe was prohibited from operating the Southern Comfort.
Months later, McCabe applied for two Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans, a federal relief program designed to help small businesses survive the economic impact of the pandemic. To secure the loans (and later their forgiveness), McCabe falsely claimed that his scuba charter business was still operational and submitted fraudulent payroll information and tax documents to obtain the funds and secure loan forgiveness.
U.S. Attorney Hayden P. O’Byrne for the Southern District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge Josh W. Packer of the Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS) Southeast Field Office made the announcement.
CGIS Southeast Field Office investigated the case, with assistance from U.S. Coast Guard Marine Safety Detachment Lake Worth and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Office of Law Enforcement.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Keller, U.S. Coast Guard Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Tanner Stiehl, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacob Koffsky prosecuted the case.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov under case number 24-CR-80103.
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