The Department of Justice announces the sentencing in federal court of Seafood Solutions Inc. to pay $1 million in fines and community service payments for its role in the false labeling of frozen fish fillets. The corporation was fined $700,000 and ordered to make a community service donation of $300,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation. In addition, the company was sentenced to three years of probation, was ordered to forfeit all remaining inventory of the falsely labeled fish and to develop and implement a corporate compliance plan.

Seafood Solutions was convicted on July 25, 2011, of a single count of trafficking in fish knowing that the fish had been transported and sold in violation of the U.S. Lacey Act. Specifically, the fish, Pangasius hypophthalmus, were misleadingly labeled as Paradise Grouper and Falcon Baie Grouper. Seafood Solutions was one of three defendants named; co-defendants Chau-Shing (Duke) Lin and Christopher Ragone also entered guilty pleas on July 25, 2011.

Duke Lin of Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking in fish when in the exercise of due care he should have known that the fish had been transported and sold in violation of the Lacey Act. Duke Lin also pleaded guilty to one count of misbranding food. Christopher Ragone of Santa Ana, Calif. pleaded guilty to two counts of misbranding food. The sentencing hearing for the individuals is set for Feb. 13, 2012.