In case you were wondering, the City Attorney in San Diego does not mess around when it comes to menu mislabeling. If you think it’s a good idea to defraud consumers by putting one fish on the menu but serving them a different, cheaper, fish it’s time to reconsider your business model.

A “truth-in-menu” investigation, launched last year, took aim at seafood fraud and has now resulted in eight criminal convictions. Eight sushi restaurants were nailed for deceiving customers. Not only did they earn themselves a criminal conviction but California law requires them to reimburse all of the investigation costs.

Let’s review; Sushi restaurants in San Diego were suspected of cheating consumers via seafood fraud, officials investigated and confirmed that suspicion, the prosecutors not only convicted them but made them pay for the investigations that ended in their own conviction… ouch.

Who said crime doesn’t pay?