Seafood Corp. to Pay $1M in Lacey Violation for Falsely Labeling Fish
The Justice Department has announced that Seafood Solutions Inc., a California corporation, was sentenced to pay $1 million in fines and community service payments for its role in the false labeling of frozen fish fillets. The corporation was fined $700,000 and ordered to make a community service donation of $300,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. The company was also sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to forfeit all remaining inventory of the falsely labeled fish and develop and implement a corporate compliance plan.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
Company Falsely Labeled Fishas Paradise Grouper and Falcon Baie Grouper
According to the plea agreements, in approximately June 2004, Seafood Solutions began to sell a fish it declared to customs as “ponga.” The fish being imported as ponga was Pangasius hypophthalmus, a species in the catfish family. The fish was then sold under brand names and in boxes labeled in part as “Paradise Grouper” and “Falcon Baie Grouper.”
Wholesale Distributor Returned Over $400K of Mislabeled Fish
Between July 2005 and February 2006, a wholesale distributor that had purchased this product returned approximately $411,194 worth of the product labeled as “Paradise Grouper,” “ponga” or “Falcon Baie Grouper” because the wholesale distributor’s customer mistakenly believed that the fish product was grouper. Seafood Solutions agreed to be invoiced for and received the returned product, knowing that it had been inaccurately labeled.
Company Knowingly Re-Sold Returned Fish in Interstate Commerce
Seafood Solutions again sold and transported the fish in interstate commerce even after its return from the customer, knowing that it was misleadingly labeled. From February to April 2006, Ragone sold approximately $2 million worth of Pangasius fillets knowing that the product bore the "Paradise grouper" and "ponga" labels and was thus misleadingly labeled.
Two Individuals Also Pleaded Guilty to Lacey Act Violation
Chau-Shing (Duke) Lin, and Christopher Ragone entered guilty pleas in July 2011. Lin pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in fish when, in the exercise of due care, he should have known that the fish had been transported and sold in violation of the Lacey Act. Lin also pleaded guilty to one count of misbranding food. Ragone pleaded guilty to two counts of misbranding food. The sentencing hearing for the individuals is set for February 13, 2012.