Michigan Maritime Training School Owner Pleads Guilty to Falsifying Captain’s Course Records

A St. Clair County man has pleaded guilty to falsifying records for students seeking to become credentialed merchant mariners, potentially endangering safety on the Great Lakes. The case is the latest highlighting ongoing concerns about mariner credential fraud.

Mel Stackpoole, 62, owner and lead instructor of Great Lakes Charter Training, entered a guilty plea before United States District Judge Terrence G. Berg to one count of knowingly altering and falsifying records with intent to impede proper administration of a matter within United States Coast Guard jurisdiction.

According to court records, Stackpoole provided students in his Master 100 Ton Captain’s Course with less than 50 hours of classroom instruction instead of the required 80 hours in August 2020. He also instructed students to provide false information regarding their prior sea service, medical history, and recreational drug use on their merchant mariner credential applications.

Additionally, Stackpoole improperly provided students with answers to examination questions, changed incorrect test answers to correct ones, and inflated test scores to reflect passing rather than failing grades before issuing course completion certificates falsely signifying successful course completion.

“Mel Stackpoole has endangered the safety of everyone who uses the waterways of our Great Lakes by deliberately circumnavigating the Coast Guard’s training and certification protocols and facilitating the issuance of credentials to unskilled and unqualified mariners,” stated United States Attorney Jerome F. Gorgon Jr.

“Integrity is the cornerstone of our maritime profession. When that trust is broken, it jeopardizes individual careers and the safety and security of our waterways,” added Captain Richard Armstrong, Commander of U.S. Coast Guard Sector Detroit. “The U.S. Coast Guard stands firm in ensuring that those who choose to deceive or falsify their merchant mariner credential, or those who subvert the credentialing process, will be held accountable.”

Stackpoole faces a maximum penalty of 20 years imprisonment and a $250,000 fine at his sentencing hearing scheduled for December 18, 2025.

This case represents the latest in a series of crackdowns on fraudulent mariner certificates in the United States. Previous cases include a 2021 Virginia Beach incident where Lamont Godfrey was sentenced to 45 months in prison for creating counterfeit certificates from the Mid-Atlantic Maritime Academy. That conspiracy netted over $394,000 in profits and involved more than 252 mariners purchasing fraudulent qualifications.

In another significant case from October 2022, former United States Coast Guard employees Dorothy Smith and Eldridge Johnson were sentenced to five and six years imprisonment respectively for a bribery scheme at a Coast Guard exam center in Mandeville, Louisiana, where they falsified records for merchant mariners who hadn’t actually completed required examinations.

The Stackpoole case was investigated by the U.S. Coast Guard and Coast Guard Investigative Service, with prosecution handled by Assistant United States Attorney Timothy J. Wyse and Special Assistant United States Attorney Corinne M. Lambert.

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