A Mississippi seafood distributor and two company managers pleaded guilty on Tuesday to conspiring with others to mislabel seafood and to commit wire fraud by marketing inexpensive and frozen imported substitutes as more expensive and premium local species.

Quality Poultry and Seafood Inc. (QPS), the largest seafood wholesaler on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, agreed to pay the U.S. $1 million in forfeitures and a criminal fine of $150,000 for its part in the crime, the Department of Justice said.

QPS sales manager Todd A. Rosetti and business manager James W. Gunkel, both of Ocean Springs, Mississippi, also pleaded guilty to misbranding seafood. 

QPS admitted to taking part in this fish substitution scheme from as early as 2002 through November 2019. The indictment alleges that QPS sold to restaurants foreign-sourced fish that substituted for the local species advertised on menus. QPS also labeled the cheap imports it sold to customers at its own retail shop and cafe as premium local fish.

Mary Mahoney's, a restaurant that pleaded guilty in May, admitted that between December 2013 and November 2019, it fraudulently sold, as local premium species, approximately 58,750 pounds of fish that was not the species identified on its menu.

Founder Of Stem Cell Company Busted For Distributing Unapproved Drug

The founder and chief executive officer of a California-based company that marketed stem cell-based products linked to multiple hospitalizations pleaded guilty on Monday to a felony violation of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.

John W. Kosolcharoen, 53, most recently of Orange County, California, pleaded guilty to introducing an unapproved new drug into interstate commerce with the intent to defraud and mislead, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said.

According to court documents, Kosolcharoen formed companies Liveyon LLC and Genetech Inc. in 2016 to make and distribute injectable stem cell products made from human umbilical cord blood. Liveyon marketed the products under different brand names such as "ReGen."

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In pleading guilty, Kosolcharoen admitted that he and others misrepresented ReGen as suitable for treating a variety of conditions, such as lung and heart diseases, autoimmune disorders, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. Liveyon marketed the products throughout the U.S. until about April 2019 through advertising that had multiple false and misleading statements about their purported safety and effectiveness.

Kosolcharoen admitted he and others fraudulently induced customers into buying stem cell-derived Liveyon products by misleading the public about the cause and severity of adverse events suffered by Liveyon patients.

CEO Of Publicly Traded Magic Mushroom Maker Nailed For Allegedly Defrauding Investors

The CEO of Minerco Inc. MINE was arrested last week on charges of securities fraud related to a scheme to defraud investors in Minerco, the DOJ said.

According to court documents, Julius Jenge, 54, allegedly defrauded investors in the publicly traded securities of Minerco between October 2019 and June 2021 by, among other things, working with another person to take control of Minerco in late 2019 and issuing one billion Minerco shares to a nominee shareholder.

They also publicized positive press releases about Minerco to be issued to the public, some of which contained materially false and misleading information, in an effort to artificially increase the share price of Minerco.

Beginning in January 2020, Minerco purported publicly to be in the business of developing, marketing and distributing psilocybin mushrooms, also known as magic mushrooms or psychedelic mushrooms.

Jenge also allegedly failed to disclose his co-conspirator’s involvement with Minerco in public filings and falsely stated he earned an MBA in marketing and a bachelor of arts in accounting during an investor video conference.

Jenge was arrested on Aug. 22 at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, where he was booked on a flight to Tanzania. He is charged with one count of securities fraud. If convicted, Jenge faces up to 20 years in prison.

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