Burien, Washington, seafood broker sentenced for illegally shipping potentially tainted clams

Seattle – A Burien, Washington, seafood dealer was sentenced immediately in U.S. District Courtroom in Seattle to 90 days in jail, and three years of supervised launch, for smuggling items from the USA, introduced U.S. Legal professional Nick Brown. Jeffrey Hallin Olsen, 52, proprietor of Absolute Seafoods LLC, falsified paperwork and lied to authorities about disposing of 46 instances of probably tainted geoduck from Alaska.  U.S District Choose John C. Coughenour sentenced Olsen’s firm, Absolute Seafoods LLC, to probation and was ordered to pay a $25,000 nice. 

“Mr. Olson selected to gamble with the lives of consumers throughout the globe – placing them vulnerable to shellfish poisoning,” stated U.S. Legal professional Brown. “We’ll seemingly by no means know if any of the Chinese language clients turned in poor health from these clams, however a jail sentence is justified by the hazard of his conduct and his repeated lies to authorities, claiming he had destroyed the possibly dangerous geoduck.”

In keeping with data filed within the case, on February 20 or 21, 2019, Olsen bought 2,500 kilos of geoduck from numerous Alaska divers.  The geoduck had been blended collectively in crates for delivery, and had been picked up at Sea-Tac Airport, to be trucked to Vancouver B.C and shipped to Hong Kong.  Olsen produced a U.S. Division of Commerce Export Well being Certificates stating that the geoduck met well being necessities.

At some point after the acquisition, however earlier than the geoduck had been exported, one of many divers notified Alaska state officers that he had mistakenly harvested his geoduck from an space that had not been accredited for harvest.   The world had not been examined for the toxins that trigger paralytic shellfish poisoning, which has been a recurring downside in Alaskan waters.  An Alaska Wildlife Trooper notified Olsen that he wanted to destroy the cargo because it was unsafe to devour.  Olsen instructed the trooper he would destroy the geoduck.

As an alternative of destroying the geoduck, Olsen illegally shipped many of the geoduck to Hong Kong for human consumption.  Olsen shipped an extra 10 instances of probably tainted geoduck to a purchaser in Oakland, California.  Olsen ready false delivery paperwork that falsely recognized the contents of the crates as “recent Yelloweye.”

Olsen falsely instructed Alaskan officers that he had destroyed the geoduck and supplied them with a invoice from the King County rubbish switch station as proof the geoduck had been destroyed.  Nevertheless, investigators reviewed surveillance video from the switch station displaying that on the time of the receipt, Olsen solely disposed of a small quantity of family waste.  Investigators additionally retrieved video displaying Olsen personally delivering the crates for cargo to Oakland. 

The case was investigated by NOAA Fisheries Enforcement, the Washington Division of Fish and Wildlife Police and the Alaska Division of Public Security, with help from the California Division of Fish and Sport, and the Division of Fisheries and Oceans – Canada. 

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Legal professional Seth Wilkinson.