Seafood Solutions, a Torrance, California-based seafood company, has been fined one million dollars for falsely labeling frozen catfish fillets as grouper.
The company was fined $700,000 and ordered to donate $300,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.
They were convicted of trafficking in fish known to be transported and sold in violation of the U.S. Lacey Act.
The company was hit with the fines but also found guilty were two defendants, Chau-Shing Lin and Christopher Ragone, who will be sentenced February 13th.
So even though they intended to defraud their customers at least the company’s donation to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation will fund projects related to methodologies, databases and other types of research into the identification of different marine organisms.
We had no idea the penalties would be so steep but at least others might learn from their mistake, seeing as how this is a pretty big message.
-
Categories
