A Vietnamese man from Virginia accused of falsely labeling imported fish has been sentenced in federal court in Los Angeles to 5 years in prison and ordered to pay more than $12 million in unpaid duties, reports Courthouse News Service here.
Peter Xuong Lam, 49, former president of Virginia Star Seafood Corp., was among a dozen people and companies convicted of importing mislabeled fish to avoid federal tariffs.
Another man involved in the scheme, 64-year-old Arthur Yavelberg, was sentenced to 1 year of probation.
The alleged organizer of the conspiracy and real boss of the company, Henry Nguyen, is a fugitive and is believed to be in Vietnam.
Henry’s father Kich Nguyen owns the company that exports these fish from Vietnam: Cafatex – whose subsidiaries include Binh Dinh, Antesco and Anhaco.
According to a source of the Bolsavik’s familiar with the Vietnamese catfish industry, an executive of another Vietnamese company was also detained in Belgium while there to attend a business fair. The Belgians, however, eventually declined to extradite him to the U.S. and he returned to Vietnam safely. Allegedly, that other company was also implicated in this same case.
According to the government’s press release here, the pair was convicted of falsely labeling variously as sole, grouper, flounder, etc. and also basa – which is more expensive than what it really is: swai or striped pangasius (Pangasius hypophthalmus).
Most importantly, the fish that the pair was importing from Vietnam – P. hypophthalmus – is subject to antidumping tariffs. (Hence the $12 million.)
Seafood wholesalers who bought from Henry Nguyen’s company are also charged with knowing the labels were false but accepted them anyway. Pleading guilty to this were a long list of seafood distributors: Henry Yip - T.P. Company; David Wong – True World Foods, Inc.; David Chu - Dakon International; Du Sa Ngo - Southern Bay; Joseph Xie - Agar Supply.
The basa fish has had a long and strange history in the U.S.
Originally imported as “catfish,” this family of fish (also called cá tra in Vietnamese) was the subject of highly publicized legal battles by American catfish farmers from the Deep South. (See, e.g., 2002 N.Y. Times story here.) The Vietnamese exporters were also accused of dumping – selling at lower than fair cost by using subsidized resources.
In 2003 the decision was made that the particular kind of fish imported from Vietnam cannot be labeled catfish. The P. hypophthalmus species is subject to antidumping tariffs.
A related species, P. bocourti (pictured left), is not subject to tariffs but cannot use the name “catfish” but must use the name “basa.”
It is somewhat ironic (and a testimonial to the basa’s popularity) that now another kind of fish is being passed off as “basa.”
Other countries have also, off and on, imposed some type of penalty on Vietnamese basa fish, citing one reason or another. Russia once banned it for three months. Egypt banned it for a week, claiming health concerns.
Compared with its heyday of a few years ago, the basa fish industry, based in the Mekong Delta, is now in deep trouble and may not survive the current recession.
Lam was convicted of conspiring to import mislabeled fish in order to avoid federal import tariffs, anjd also on three counts of dealing in fish that he knew had been imported contrary to law. Yavelberg was found guilty of conspiracy to trade in misbranded food.
Wikipedia lists the P. hypophthalmus as a catfish, not basa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridescent_shark
P. bocourti is both basa and catfish according to the same source.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basa_fish
Correct to list both P. hypophthalmus and P. bocourti as catfish, but only P bocourti can be classified as basa. As for misrepresenting both for another species is completely illegal. Guilty as charged.
This is the typical example of why Vietnam is so screwed up. There are too many corrupted people doing business.
@Billy Strikero
You brought up a good point.
What wikipedia may say about the names of particular fish, has to do with common usage throughout the English-speaking world.
What labels are allowed on fish being imported or sold in the U.S., however, has to do with FDA regulations — which may or may not be the same as the common usage.
FDA regulations – see http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/~frf/slcf2003.html for example – says that P. hypophthalmus can only be labeled as Swai, Sutchi, or Striped Pangasius. (It used to be acceptable to label them as Swai, Sutchi, Striped Catfish, or Sutchi Catfish; that’s not the case any longer.)
Пора переименовать блог, присвоив название связанное с доменами
может хватит про них?
@Marc Lavarre – you bring up the point of Vietnam being so corrupt like this country is so sweet and innocent.
@Duc:
Exactly. It was corrupt American businessmen that has brought the global economy to its knees.
And lets not even mention the PAC’s that pay off American politicians….
After reading all the links, hard to decide who is right and wrong. On one hand, we have to protect our own neighbors, meaning the domestic fish farmers in the South. However, if we don’t help out the Viets in VN, how will these people ever going to free themselves from China. Only wish the US gives some other business to VN as a compromise.
Have to say that the fish farmers in the South are very aware and keen on the topic and not lump the issue as a VN thing. Extremely difficult to fault those people. Like that one man said, the fishermen in VN are not making the dough – it is the middle men and guessing most likely Viet Kieu…