The Justice Department issued the following statement.
A Mississippi corporation operating as Mary Mahoney’s Old French House restaurant in Biloxi, Mississippi, and its co-owner and manager, Anthony Charles Cvitanovich, were sentenced today on charges arising from their participation in a long-standing conspiracy to misbrand seafood by substituting inexpensive imported fish for the local premium species they advertised and declared on their menus.
The court accepted the terms of a plea agreement Mary Mahoney’s reached with the government and sentenced the company to five years of probation and ordered it to pay a total penalty of $1,499,000, which included $149,000 as a criminal fine and $1,350,000 in forfeiture for some of the proceeds it had obtained from its fraudulent sales of seafood to its customers. The Court also imposed special conditions of supervision, to include that Mary Mahoney’s maintain for no less than five years, records describing the species, sources, and the cost of the seafood it acquires for sale to its customers, and that it make these records available to any federal, state, or local governmental authority that regulates or monitors the service and distribution of food for human consumption and to any such agency that regulates the harvesting, storage, labeling, or sale of seafood. The Court also ordered as a condition of supervision that Mary Mahoney’s shall answer truthfully any inquiry from any governmental agency and from any customer as to the species, source, and cost of any seafood it prepares, serves, sells or advertises for sale.
On May 30, 2024, Mary Mahoney’s pled guilty to a felony charging the corporation with conspiracy to misbrand seafood and wire fraud in connection with a scheme that began as early as 2002 and continued through November of 2019. Mahoney’s, founded in 1962, admitted that between December 2013 and November 2019, the company and its co-conspirators at a Biloxi seafood wholesaler fraudulently sold as local premium species approximately 58,750 pounds (over 29 tons) of fish that was actually frozen and imported from Africa, India, and South America.
Mahoney’s co-owner/manager, Anthony Charles Cvitanovich, 55, was sentenced to three years of probation and 4 months of home detention. He was also ordered to pay a $10,000 fine. On May 30, 2024, Mr. Cvitanovich pled guilty to a felony Information charging him with misbranding of seafood during 2018 and 2019.
“Misbranding foreign seafood as premium, locally caught fish hurts the Gulf Coast seafood industry and defrauds customers that paid to taste the real thing,” said U.S. Attorney Todd Gee. “This investigation and today’s sentence will hopefully send a message that the Department of Justice is serious about holding businesses accountable that mislabel food sources.”
U.S. Attorney Todd W. Gee of the Southern District of Mississippi and Environment and Natural Resources Division Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim made the announcement.
The Food and Drug Administration - Office of Criminal Investigations initiated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea C. Jones and Senior Trial Attorney Jeremy F. Korzenik of the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division are prosecuting the case.
In related charges, the Biloxi seafood wholesaler Quality Poultry and Seafood and two of its managers are scheduled for sentencing on Monday, December 11, 2024.
22 comments:
That guy always seemed a little fishy-
Its crazy that you will get a felony for selling fake fish.
Why? It's fraud and they did it for many years. You think misdemeanors are going to deter anyone?
I was taken here many times by clients on the Gulf coast. I was never as impressed as they made it out to be. Now I know why. Funny thing is they never noticed. I guess it is similar to how you can get nose blind to your kitchen trash can stinking.
Not crazy at all. This is part of what makes the USA an incredible place. Justice at this level is incredible. In most developing or middle power countries, this level of fraud is just accepted. It erodes all trust in society. I am glad that we live in a country where this type of fraud is caught and accounted.
The shakedown from the government is that they get to keep the money. Not the actual customers that were defrauded. What they did was wrong, how the money is now forfeited to the government is BS.
Restaurants mislabel every day. I’ve never heard of some of the names of fish dishes in upscale restaurants. And are you sure that the redfish is redfish or the MS Farm Raised Catfish isn’t some Vietnam or China trash fish. The only seafood I’m sure of is flounder. Even shrimp & crabmeat can be inferior from that in the menu.
@10:19 - You are free to sue the restaurant to recover damages you suffered when you ate a fish that you did not order. I doubt you'll find an attorney to take your case on a contingency basis but good luck to you.
Yes, 10:19. I was about to ask what becomes of this money. Where exactly does it wind up:
"$1,350,000 in forfeiture for some of the proceeds it had obtained from its fraudulent sales of seafood to its customers."
If they were corrupt enough to commit this fraud, who's to say they didn't commit more health-endangering acts?
10:19 is right. Why does the government get to keep the fine and not the people who were gyped?
This reminds me of the investment industry shakedown artists at FINRA. FINRA once fined MetLife $25M, and kept $20M for themselves. These angels of mercy only fly first class, stay in 5* hotels, eat in 5* restaurants, and have a pension to go along with their 2020 average salary of $250,000 per employee. We don't know how much they make now because they no longer publish the salary numbers.
Bottom line: any government or regulatory agency that tells you they are looking out for you, be assured that you are the last of their interests.
A class action suit has already been filed on behalf of defrauded customers
Sheepshead is served at many fancy restaurants close to the gulf coast. It just isn't on the menu at those fancy restaurants.
@2:38 Sheepshead is sold at fancy restaurants as…..”Bay Snapper”
What is "pan trout" and "whiting"?
@12:33 Waiting on my 19¢ check after 30% to a Detroit law firm
Is there a site to sign up for the class action suit?
And a contingency law firm was salivating at gaining the business.
I just can't believe the scale of this deceit. I'm glad they weren't let off the hook. Good for the authorities to reel in this sort of dishonesty. This really cast a shadow over the restaurant industry.
did anyone else pick up on the puns? SCALE of this deceit,
let off the HOOK, ...REEL in...., CAST a shadow
@11:06, no, I didn't snap at the bait and net any puns. We're not in the same boat, then, you and I.
This whole thing is nothing more than a classic case of bait 'n switch. Let's put in a plug for the honest restaurateurs who have wormed their way into success. Some of you have suggested there were bigger fish to fry, and this case should have simply sunk in the deep end, but justice needed doing, it was a knotty case, cast upon legal waters which landed well. Kingfish did a public service by exposing these crabby people who were using a fake menu to hook patrons.
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