The Justice Department issued the following statement.
A Mississippi seafood distributor and two company managers pleaded guilty today to conspiring with others to mislabel seafood and to commit wire fraud by marketing inexpensive and frozen imported substitutes as more expensive and premium local species.
Quality Poultry and Seafood Inc. (QPS), the largest seafood wholesaler on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, has agreed to pay the United States $1 million in forfeitures and a criminal fine of $150,000. QPS sales manager Todd A. Rosetti and business manager James W. Gunkel, both of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, also pleaded guilty to misbranding seafood to facilitate QPS’ fraud.
QPS admitted to participating in this fish substitution scheme from as early as 2002 and continuing through November 2019. The indictment alleges that QPS recommended and sold to its restaurant customers foreign-sourced fish that could serve as convincing substitutes for the local species the restaurants advertised on their menus. QPS also labeled the cheap imports that it sold to customers at its own retail shop and café as premium local fish.
“QPS and company officials went to great lengths in conspiring with others to perpetuate fraud for more than a decade, even after they knew they were under federal investigation,” said Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim of the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. “Mislabeling seafood harms local wholesalers and fishermen who compete to sell locally sourced, premium fish in a market unfairly flooded with less expensive fish, frozen and imported from overseas.”
“When imported substitutes are marketed as local domestic seafood, it depresses the value of authentic Gulf Coast seafood, which means that honest local fishermen and wholesalers have a harder time making a profit,” said U.S. Attorney Todd W. Gee for the Southern District of Mississippi. “This kind of mislabeling fraud hurts the overall local seafood market and rips off restaurant customers who were paying extra to eat a premium local product. These convictions should serve as a warning: restaurants and wholesalers will face criminal prosecution if they are not honest with customers about what they are actually buying.”
“U.S. consumers expect their seafood to be correctly identified. When sellers purposefully substitute one fish species for another, they deceive consumers and cause potential food safety hazards to be overlooked or misidentified by processors or end users,” said Special Agent in Charge Justin Fielder of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)’s Office of Criminal Investigations, Miami Field Office. “We will continue to investigate and bring to justice those who put profits above public health.”
The indictment alleges that even after agents from the FDA executed a criminal search warrant at QPS to investigate its sale of mislabeled fish, QPS continued for over a year to sell frozen fish imported from Africa, South America and India for use as substitutes for local premium species.
Mary Mahoney’s, which pleaded guilty in May, admitted that between December 2013 and November 2019, it fraudulently sold, as local premium species, approximately 58,750 pounds (over 29 tons) of fish that was not the species identified on its menu. QPS supplied seafood to Mary Mahoney’s and many other restaurant restaurants and retailers.
QPS, Rosetti and Gunkel will be sentenced on Dec. 11. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
FDA’s Office of Criminal Investigations is investigating the case.
Senior Trial Attorney Jeremy F. Korzenik of the Environment and Natural Resources Division’s Environmental Crimes Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Jones for the Southern District of Mississippi are prosecuting the case.
48 comments:
Will be sad if the result of this is an empty building where Mary Mahoney's used to be. Hopefully someone (an Honest business person/Chef) will step in and take over the location. As for Mary Mahoney's? They are gone. I guess we have consumed lots of foreign seafood there in the past years. Always enjoyed their dishes.
9:12, while I am offended at what they did, they are not going anywhere. The outpouring of support has been extreme. If anything, they had an uptick in business with people showing support, and posting on Facebook themselves eating there as a show of support. It’s an icon. And part of the reason they got so much support is because they treat people so damn well. Bobby treats peoplr who walk in for the first time ever as well as he treats a US President or a foreign dignitary, of which numerous of both have dined there. A thriving mahoneys is good for Biloxi and good for the coast as a whole. I hope they pay for their sins and make it back better than ever. I’ve been back since then and will be back more
I'll continue to buy fish at Mr. Chen's. They don't lie about their sources and their fish is fresh, even if it comes from Asia or elsewhere.
Mary Mahoney's has been a tourist trap for many years. People will still go there.
here how you fix the problem. put a big TARIFF, yes thats what i said, a tariff , on all imported seafood coming into this country. that will put the price point on the level with locally caught seafood.
the morons in this country don't realize that tariffs have been in place in order to protect the domestic production of products since washington was in the white house. tariffs were the policy that preserved and protected american industry from the very beginnings. its the only thing that levels the playing field.
tariffs are not anything new. the radical open borders socialists will tell you tariffs were some kind of voodoo cooked up by the trump administration. they are not. people in this county dont know history , and certainly not economic history, past last saturday. they only thing they are concerned with is whether or not they can buy fast food with their snap card a/k/a food stamps.
Most people don't like being lied to, especially if the lie is part of a criminal attempt to separate people from more of their money. So spare me the diatribes about how well people are treated.
17 consecutive years of ongoing crime-
@9:22
how's the fish?
9:22 Bobby Mahoney screwed over his customers for 20 years. His corny jokes made you laugh while he stabbed you in the back with cheap seafood and lots of sauce to hide the fish taste. If someone screws you on their "signature" dishes what the hell do you think they do on organic vegetables or whiskey? Damn. Do you not see that the guy is a fraud?
Let them live with the fish.
But he's a gooda boy.
to 9:12........''bobby treats people like they the president''......well good - man bobby has been perpetuating a fraud on his customers since w. bush was in the white house., day in and day out. everybody says the same thing about con artists...they will all say ...........''he/ she was so charming and interesting''....well thats the calling card of a great con artist, the ability to completely change their personality when they start to put on the fake sell. for a state that is totally infested with con artists you would think the people around here would learn how to better spot them. a ''thriving'' mahoneys in not necessarily good for biloxi , honest businesses and honest business practices are what is good for biloxi.
quality poultry and seafood INC.................. for the throngs of uninformed INC. means its a corporation.
often corporations are indicted and please guilty to criminal charges . but it is ashamed the government can't put the entire corporation in prison.
put mary mahoney right up there with bernie embers, nancy new, lamar adams, chris epps, the ridgeway property management guy, lamar adams, the list goes on and on.
The food at MM has always been overrated and overpriced - regardless of its source. I suppose it has some history and charm but there are so many better options for fresh seafood on the coast.
I remember living on the coast 10!years ago and hearing commercials on the radio for Quality Poultry and Seafood. They sure weren’t advertising imported fish.
@9:36 They have Lee’s Supermarket on the coast and it is their equivalent to Mr. Chen’s
" the largest seafood wholesaler on the Mississippi Gulf Coast" Damn. They could have been doing this to other restaurants too. Way to screw over all the local guys trying to make a living.
Wonder who else Quality supplied….hmmmm
Still love their gumbo.
Y'all have carped about this restaurant enough.
11:28 I bet they use jar roux.
The casinos?
Quality was the very best real seafood for years on Coast.
9:12, while I am offended at what they did, they are not going anywhere. The outpouring of support has been extreme. If anything, they had an uptick in business with people showing support, and posting on Facebook themselves eating there as a show of support. It’s an icon. And part of the reason they got so much support is because they treat people so damn well. Bobby treats peoplr who walk in for the first time ever as well as he treats a US President or a foreign dignitary, of which numerous of both have dined there. A thriving mahoneys is good for Biloxi and good for the coast as a whole. I hope they pay for their sins and make it back better than ever. I’ve been back since then and will be back more
August 28, 2024 at 9:22 AM
Damn are you Stupid or somethin??? This guy STOLE & LIED to you & you Take Up For Him??? I guess your OK with our State Legislators Double Dipping into the PERS & you helping py for it also...Jeeze what a moron...
I have interacted with the Mahoneys for years and agree they are incredibly friendly and kind. But that certainly does not make up for this crime.
Right or wrong, I feel like the place will stay in business.
Just goes to show people who continually talk about eating food that is fresh and quality knows little about what they are talking about. They are easily fooled.
Not sure how fresh it can be if it came from Asia.
Sounds like somebody has a personal thing about Bobby that predates all this fishy business.
Quality supplies casinos and Quality supplies grocery stores. In fact, Rosetti was at Corner Market in Hattiesburg today.
I miss Gollott's Oysters from 25 years ago. Did I misspell it? They were the best! Was I really eating squid?
Can I trust Crechale's now? Is he rebottling my favorite beer with O'douls or Schaefer? Is the roast beef in the cafeteria at St. Dominic's really horse meat?
Is Walker's serving me armadillo instead of Crusted Ahn Pere La Russo?
Well said! Mary Mahoney’s is an institution!!
That’s a high Quality item there Clark..
Revolution Seafood (god bless its demise) served me tilapia as redfish. I hunt fish and I know what I’m eating.
We honor and rely on honesty in this country. We don’t need tariffs, we need honest purveyors. No liars. Wanna bet their political affiliation? I’m in. Any amount.
There’s a sucker born every minute
Blue Runner canned gumbo base will build a good gumbo, not nearly as good as my Aunt Liz’s but good.
I trust you know that tilapia simply means 'fish' in nine languages. And buffalo will sub for redfish if the cook is competent.
The roux used in the Mary Mahoney gumbo comes from Sysco. Anyone who knows excellent gumbo knows it all starts with a good roux. There’s starts with a chicken flavored gravy. Terrible with a capital T.
to 9:12.......i dont care how'' competent''your cook is.....try to pass off buffaloe as redfish in south louisiana........you will find yourself used for crab bait.
Buy your seafood at Desporte, it's right around the corner. I don't care what happens to the overrated Mary Mahoneys.
to 8;07......we dont need tariffs on imported seafood ? is that what you said? i see now, you want a perfect world. well, that aint happening any time soon.
Didn’t take the bet though
@8:01am So we should punish other hard working people because we are a nation of dishonorable and dishonest people?
We ain't in south Louisiana, Bubba. And neither is Mary Mahoney's.
What they did reflects on all restaurants it is terrible
The fish they served cost possibly $.66 per serving while other restaurants actually paid for the fish served for 17 years
They should be gone
Thieves
He lied to people’s faces or was too stupid to understand what he served
They should have to give everyone they defrauded the difference
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