Besides Carawan’s punishment, his company will also suffer consequences. Capt. Neill’s Seafood was sentenced to 5 years of probation and will have to pay a $500,000 fine. Restitution will be paid to persons whom the government confirmed purchased Capt. Neill’s jumbo crab meat between 2012 and June 2015. 

Carawan and his company were engaged in the purchasing, processing, packaging, transporting, and selling of seafood and seafood products, including crab meat and domestically harvested blue crab. He instructed his employees to repack foreign crab meat into containers labeled “Product of the USA,” which Capt. Neill’s then sold to customers as jumbo domestically harvested blue crab. The falsely labeled seafood, totaling $4,082.841, was sold mostly to wholesale membership clubs, but also to retailers. 

In his plea agreement, Carawan admitted that the fraudulence was committed because he and his company could not and did not process sufficient quantities of domestic blue crab to meet customer demand. They began using foreign crab meat from South America and Asia to make up for the shortfall and fulfill customer orders.

This case was part of an ongoing effort by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Office of Law Enforcement, in coordination with the Food and Drug Administration, and the Department of Justice to detect, deter, and prosecute those engaged in the false labeling of crab meat.

Sign up for Food Safety Magazine’s bi-weekly emails!

Subscribe to our podcast: Food Safety Matters!