U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard has convicted Florida-based Sea Food Center and its owner, Adrian Vela, of mislabeling shrimp.
Vela received three years probation, while his company received one year, a $15,000 (€11,000) fine and a $1,200 (€892) special assessment.
Court documents and testimony show the defendants changed the labels on shrimp from Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia to read “Shrimp, Product of Panama.”
They made between $400,000 (€297,000) and $750,000 (€558,000) for the scheme, involving 500,000 pounds of shrimp. They had changed the labels on shrimp received from United Seafood.
