Dallas Seafood Business Fined $250,000 for Falsifying Country of Origin for Salmon

 

Seafood Supply Co., a Dallas seafood wholesaler, was sentenced to pay a $250,000 fine for violating two counts of the Lacey Act. 

According to court documents, Seafood Supply falsified the country of origin of salmon sold from January 2020 to February 2022. The company would designate Chilean salmon as salmon from Scotland or other European countries. Typically, the Chilean salmon was less expensive than product from Scotland. 

In addition to the fine, Seafood Supply was placed on probation for three years and ordered to implement an environmental compliance plan. The company previously pleaded guilty on March 4. Seafood Supply has been under new leadership since the time of the violations.

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the Justice Department’s Energy and Natural Resources Division (ENRD); U.S. Attorney Ryan R. Raybould for the Northern District of Texas; and Assistant Director Paige Casey of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s Office of Law Enforcement, Southeast Division made the announcement.

NOAA investigated the case as part of Operation Upstream Diligence. 

Trial Attorney Christopher L. Hale of ENRD’s Environmental Crimes Section prosecuted the case with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas. 

ENRD is a member of the Department of Justice’s Trade Fraud Task Force, a cross-agency law enforcement effort that also involves the Criminal and Civil Divisions’ Fraud Sections, ENRD, the Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Attorney’s Offices nationwide. The Task Force was created to leverage all of the Department’s tools and authorities to prevent trade fraud that deprives the government of vital revenue, threatens critical domestic industries, undermines consumer confidence, and weakens national security. The Task Force is designed to pursue enforcement actions against parties who seek to evade tariffs and other duties, as well as smugglers who seek to import prohibited goods into the American economy. The Justice Department encourages whistleblowers to alert the government to credible allegations of fraud, including utilizing the qui tam provisions of the False Claims Act or through the Criminal Division’s Corporate Whistleblower Program at CorporateWhistleblower@usdoj.gov using the form available here.