<div id="subtitle">NJ importer pleads guilty to selling Vietnamese catfish mislabeled as grouper to evade tariffs</div><div><p>The former chief executive of a New Jersey-based seafood importing business has admitted falsely labeling fish from Vietnam to evade more than $60 million in federal tariffs.</p><p>Sixty-one-year-old Thomas George of Old Tappan, former CEO of Cresskill-based Sterling Seafood Corp., pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Newark.</p><p>George said worked with a company based in Vietnam to import farm-raised catfish and falsely identified the fish as grouper. It was sold in fish markets and restaurants up and down the East Coast.</p><p>The U.S. imposes tariffs on Vietnamese catfish in order to protect American catfish growers.</p><p>George pleaded guilty to importing falsely labeled goods and selling misbranded fish.</p><p>He faces up to five years in prison.</p><img src="http://admatch-syndication.mochila.com/images/ad.gif?aid=67370993&bid=informcom" /></div><div id="copyright"><div>

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