Mississippi seafood distributor pleads guilty to decadeslong fish mislabeling scheme
A Mississippi seafood distributor and two managers have pleaded guilty to conspiring to mislabel seafood and commit wire fraud by marketing frozen imported fish as more expensive local species
GULFPORT, Miss. — A Mississippi seafood distributor and two managers pleaded guilty Tuesday to conspiring to mislabel seafood and commit wire fraud by marketing frozen imported fish as more expensive local species, federal authorities said.
Quality Poultry and Seafood Inc., the largest seafood wholesaler on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, agreed to forfeit $1 million and pay a $150,000 fine, the Justice Department said. The company's sales manager Todd A. Rosetti and business manager James W. Gunkel, both of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, also pleaded guilty to misbranding seafood.
The developments Tuesday are the latest in a case tied to a well known Mississippi Gulf Coast restaurant, Mary Mahoney's Old French House in Biloxi.
In May, the restaurant pleaded guilty to conspiracy to misbrand seafood and wire fraud. A co-owner/manager of Mary Mahoney's, Anthony Charles Cvitanovich, also pleaded guilty to misbranding seafood.
The Justice Department said Tuesday that QPS admitted participating in the fish substitution scheme from 2002 through November 2019. An indictment alleged QPS recommended and sold foreign-sourced fish to restaurants as substitutes for local fish that restaurants advertised on menus. The department said QPS also mislabeled imports that it sold to customers at its own retail shop and café.
“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 Todd Kim, assistant attorney general of the
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