Seafood restaurant pleads guilty to selling frozen fish as fresh

• A Mississippi restaurant pleaded guilty to mislabeling fish.
• They were mislabelling fish species and advertising imported fish as locally sourced.
• The FDA conducted genetic testing to verify the plan.

A popular Mississippi restaurant has pleaded guilty to misrepresenting seafood types on its menus and selling imported fish as locally caught, according to the Department of Justice.

Mary Mahoney’s Old French House, which was founded in Biloxi in 1962, admitted to selling more than 587,750 pounds of imported frozen fish and advertising it as locally sourced between 2013 and 2019, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi.

The restaurant pleaded guilty to mislabeling seafood and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. The Clarion Ledger reports that the restaurant will pay $1.35 million as part of the plea agreement.

Mahoney’s co-owner and manager, Anthony Cvitanovic, also pleaded guilty to one count of falsely labeling seafood.

A lawyer for the restaurant declined to comment.

Cvitanovich’s lawyer, Tim Holleman, told Business Insider that the menu was revised in 2019 and that the mislabeling only affected two casserole dishes that didn’t include fish as a main ingredient.

He attributed the mislabeling to “the difficulty in sourcing sea bream over time” and said it was affecting other restaurants, but added that “that doesn’t make it right.”

The FDA conducted genetic testing of the fish to verify the plan.

According to the Justice Department, Mahoney’s advertised the fish as locally sourced snapper and grouper from the Gulf of Mexico, when in fact the fish were from Africa (Lake Victoria perch) and India (unicorn filefish).

According to the Clarion Ledger, investigators from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) raided the restaurant in 2019. The Department of Justice said the FDA conducted genetic testing of the fish to verify the scheme.

“When people spend their hard-earned money to enjoy the Mississippi Gulf Coast’s fantastic local seafood, they should get what they pay for,” U.S. Attorney Todd Gee said in a statement.

Mahoney’s and Cvitanovic are due to be sentenced on September 12. The restaurants face fines of up to $500,000, while Cvitanovic faces up to three years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

“I’ve known them most of my life, and they’re good people,” Holleman said. “They made mistakes and they’re paying a pretty high price for them.”