Seafood Wholesaler Owners Sentenced in Alabama for Selling Falsely Labeled Fish, Smuggling and Misbranding of Seafood Products
WASHINGTON– Karen L. Blyth and David H. M. Phelps were sentenced yesterday in federal court in Mobile, Ala., to 33 months and 24 months in prison, respectively. The pair was also fined $5,000 each, and barred for three years from working in the seafood industry or owning any seafood related business. Blyth and Phelps had been convicted in January 2011 of 13 felony offenses for their roles in purchasing and selling farm-raised Asian catfish and Lake Victoria perch falsely labeled as grouper, selling foreign farm-raised shrimp falsely labeled as U.S. wild caught shrimp, selling shrimp they falsely claimed to be larger, more expensive shrimp than they actually were, and for buying fish they knew had been illegally imported into the United States. Blyth and Phelps, on the eve of trial on January 24, 2011, pleaded guilty to the offenses, which included one conspiracy count, nine violations of the Lacey Act, two counts of receiving smuggled goods and one count of misbranding. A thir...