Another Biloxi business pleads guilty in conspiracy with Mary Mahoney’s to misbrand fish
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South Mississippi seafood scandal
For years, Mary Mahoney’s Old French House Restaurant, a Biloxi institution known nationwide, bought foreign, frozen seafood from a local supplier and sold it to unsuspecting customers as fresh Gulf seafood, the restaurant has admitted.
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Biloxi’s Quality Poultry & Seafood pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to a felony charge of conspiring with Mary Mahoney’s Old French House restaurant and individuals at both businesses to mislabel cheaper foreign fish as fresh Gulf seafood.
The well-known company’s plea came through Clell Rosetti, an owner and corporate representative. The charges unveil Quality as the unnamed co-conspirator in an explosive case that has already seen famed Mary Mahoney’s and one of its co-owners plead guilty to conspiracy charges over mislabeled seafood bought from Quality.
Quality, the largest seafood wholesaler in the state, has specifically admitted to conspiring to mislabel seafood and wire fraud. The company has agreed to forfeit $1 million and pay a criminal fine of $150,000, the United States Attorney’s Office says.
The company could also spend up to five years on probation, according to court records.
Two Quality employees also pleaded guilty Tuesday in the U.S. District Court case. Sales manager Todd Rosetti, the owner’s son, and business manager James “Jim” Gunkel” each pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of misbranding seafood.
Quality, Todd Rosetti and Gunkel are scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 11 by Judge Sul Ozerden.
Quality, which also has a retail shop and cafe, passed off the foreign fish from as early as 2002 to November 2019, the federal charges say, to direct customers and restaurants. The document charging Quality describes “inexpensive fish that, by taste and appearance, could be substituted for the premium local species advertised with little likelihood of detection.”
Agents raided Biloxi businesses
Rosetti and Gunkel each face maximum sentences of up to one year in prison and fines of up to $1,000.
Rosetti and Gunkel continued to misbrand seafood even after Food and Drug Administration agents raided Quality in September 2018, charging documents say.
Between December 2013 and November 2019, the charges say, Quality mislabeled 58,750 pounds, or more than 29 tons, of imported fish sold at Mahoney’s as more popular local seafood, including snapper.
Mary Mahoney’s and co-owner Anthony “Tony” Cvitanovich, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to misbrand seafood, are supposed to be sentenced Nov. 18, also by Ozerden.
Mahoney’s could forfeit up to $1.35 million.
The foreign seafood included Lake Victoria perch, triggerfish, tripletail and unicorn filefish.
“It was the purpose of the conspirators and the objective of their conspiracy to benefit financially by misrepresenting and by facilitating the misrepresentation of the fish they and others sold as locally sourced premium fish, when, as the conspirators well knew, they were not the local popular species advertised and identified on menus for which customers were charged,” the document charging Quality says.
This story was originally published August 27, 2024 at 10:46 AM.
