There is no civil settlement in the Mary Mahoney’s seafood fraud case. The Biloxi restaurant’s financial penalty came out of the federal criminal case: a $1.35 million forfeiture and a $149,000 fine imposed at sentencing in November 2024 after guilty pleas to conspiracy to misbrand seafood and wire fraud. A separate class action brought by a diner was dismissed in June 2025, and no payout to customers was reached.
What Mary Mahoney’s Paid
Judge Sul Ozerden sentenced Mary Mahoney’s Old French House on November 18, 2024. The corporate defendant was ordered to forfeit $1,350,000 as proceeds of the fraudulent sales and to pay a $149,000 criminal fine. The court gave the restaurant five days from entry of the final order to pay the forfeiture.
The restaurant was also placed on five years of probation. A special condition requires it to keep records of the species, source, and cost of all seafood it buys, to make those records available to regulators, and to answer customer questions about its seafood truthfully.
Co-owner Anthony “Tony” Cvitanovich, 55, was sentenced separately for a felony misbranding count covering roughly 17,190 pounds of fish sold between 2018 and 2019. He received three years of probation, four months of home detention, and a $10,000 fine.
No individual customer restitution was ordered. The judge noted that identifying every defrauded diner to calculate individual amounts would have been too unwieldy.
The Fraud Behind the Numbers
Between December 2013 and November 2019, Mary Mahoney’s sold about 58,750 pounds of cheap imported fish as premium Gulf catch. Menus listed red snapper, grouper, and redfish; genetic testing by the FDA showed customers were actually eating Lake Victoria perch from Africa, tripletail from Suriname, and unicorn filefish from India. Some court filings suggested the practice may have started as early as 2002.
Prosecutors estimated roughly 55,500 mislabeled meals were served during the charged period, with an average overcharge of $2.62 per meal. The supplier, Biloxi wholesaler Quality Poultry and Seafood, sold imported perch to the restaurant for around $5.69 per pound while local fishermen were charging about $8.00 for the real Gulf species.
Why Customers Did Not Get a Settlement
On August 2, 2024, a diner named Todd McCain filed a proposed class action against Mary Mahoney’s and Quality Poultry and Seafood in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. The complaint alleged violations of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act and the Mississippi Consumer Protection Act, plus common law fraud and unjust enrichment. It sought to represent everyone in the United States who bought mislabeled fish at the restaurant between January 2012 and November 2019, with more than $5 million in controversy.
On June 12, 2025, U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola Jr. dismissed the case without prejudice for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. McCain had eaten at the restaurant three times, in 2013, 2016, and 2018. His theory was that he would not have bought the fish had he known its origin. Judge Guirola called that “buyer’s remorse” and held it was not a concrete injury sufficient for Article III standing, especially because McCain had eaten the meals without complaint at the time and suffered no health harm.
The court also flagged what it called “self-contradicting allegations” in the complaint about the timeline and volume of the scheme.
McCain then asked the court to amend the judgment and let him file a revised complaint. Judge Guirola denied both motions on November 17, 2025. The available records show no appeal to the Fifth Circuit. Because the original dismissal was without prejudice, a future plaintiff is not permanently barred, but would need to plead a more concrete injury than dissatisfaction with the fish’s country of origin.
After the dismissal, co-owner Bobby Mahoney told reporters: “I’m glad it’s over. It takes a big burden off of us. We paid pretty good already. Just glad it’s over.”
What the Supplier and Its Managers Paid
Quality Poultry and Seafood, described by prosecutors as the “most culpable” party, and two of its managers pleaded guilty in August 2024. The company and its owner, Clell Rosetti, pleaded to conspiracy and wire fraud. Sales manager Todd Rosetti and business manager James Gunkel each pleaded guilty to misdemeanor misbranding.
At sentencing on December 11, 2024, QPS received five years of probation, a $1 million forfeiture, and a $500,000 fine. Todd Rosetti was the only person in the entire case sent to prison, receiving eight months followed by 180 days of home detention, a year of supervised release, and 100 hours of community service. Gunkel received two years of probation, 12 months of home detention, and 50 hours of community service.
In May 2025, the FDA issued a final debarment order banning QPS from importing any food into the United States for five years, the maximum allowed by federal law. QPS did not contest the proposed debarment within the 30-day window. An attorney for the company argued the ban has no practical effect because QPS does not act as a direct importer, and the order does not stop it from selling imported products brought in by third-party wholesalers.
Bobby Mahoney, Mary Mahoney’s son and a co-owner of the restaurant, was not charged.
Is the Restaurant Still Open
Yes. Mary Mahoney’s Old French House remains open and continues to operate under the Mahoney family. Eileen Mahoney Ezell, a child of one of the founders, served as the restaurant’s corporate representative during the legal proceedings. Under the terms of probation, the restaurant must document the species, source, and cost of the seafood it buys and answer customer inquiries about it honestly for the next five years.