One of Mississippi’s best-known restaurants is under fire for fraudulent branding of seafood and wire fraud.
Mary Mahoney’s Old French House pled guilty to felony misinformation and wire fraud, according to court documents. Mahoney’s, founded in 1962, admitted that between December 2013 and November 2019, it imported approximately 58,750 pounds of frozen foreign fish species that were sold as local premium species.
Anthony Cvitanovich, a co-owner at the restaurant, also pled guilty to felony misinformation in the misbranding of seafood in 2018 and 2019. Cvitanovich admitted that he was involved in intentionally mislabeling more than 17,000 pounds of fish sold at the restaurant. The Mahoney’s menu described premium, higher-priced local fish, such as snapper and grouper from the Gulf of Mexico. But in reality, the fish were imported from abroad, including Lake Victoria Perch from Africa and Unicorn Filefish from India.
“When people spend their hard-earned dollars to enjoy the incredible local seafood on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, they should get what they paid for, not frozen fish from overseas,” U.S. Attorney Todd W. Gee of the Southern District of Mississippi said. “Mislabeling food and defrauding customers are serious crimes, and this case will help convince restaurants and seafood suppliers that it is not worth lying to customers about what is on the menu.”
The scheme that involved fraudulent branding of seafood and wire fraud is said to have begun as early as 2002.
Mary Mahoney’s Old French House, Inc. and Cvitanovich are set to be sentenced on September 12 of this year. The restaurant faces a maximum penalty of five years’ probation and a $500,000 fine. Cvitanovich faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison and a $10,000 fine.
The Food and Drug Administration Office of Criminal Investigations is continuing to look into the case.
