Department of Commerce
National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration
National Marine Fisheries Service
- Office of Law Enforcement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 24, 2007

NOAA FISHERIES SERVICE OFFICE OF LAW ENFORCEMENT SPECIAL AGENT MARK KINSEY RECEIVES PRESTIGIOUS U.S. ATTORNEY'S AWARD

Special Agent Mark Kinsey of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Law Enforcement was recently honored by the U.S. Attorney's Office for spearheading a major international investigation into false labeling. Kinsey was one of three NOAA employees recognized, along with NOAA forensic biologists Trey Knott and Julie Carter.

Kinsey and Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent Mike Nasca spearheaded an investigation into the activities of Panhandle Trading, Inc. (PTI), Panhandle Seafood, Inc. (PSI), and their principal officer, Danny D. Nguyen. Their investigation revealed that between May 2002 and April 2005, the defendants engaged in a scheme to intentionally mislabel certain frozen farm-raised catfish fillets, which were imported into the U.S. from Vietnam . The imported fillets were mislabeled in order to evade duties which had been imposed by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Nguyen and the companies Panhandle Trading, Inc. and Panhandle Seafood, Inc. subsequently engaged in a scheme to sell the frozen catfish fillets as wild caught grouper in various American and Canadian commercial seafood markets.

The scheme involved imports totaling over a 1.6 million pounds of catfish labeled as grouper, channa, snakehead or bass; and resulted in Nguyen, PTI and PSI being convicted of smuggling, money laundering, conspiracy and violating the Lacey Act. Nguyen was sentenced to 51 months imprisonment, to be followed by three years supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $1,139,275 in restitution for the taxes which were evaded as a result of the scheme, to forfeit the business, a vehicle, property in Panama City, Fla., and all of the fish which had been seized during the course of the investigation.

Kinsey, a Charleston native, stated that this case was the first one in a national effort to address the issue of false labeling of catfish products imported into the United States and sold as grouper.

A 1995 graduate of Southern Illinois University, Kinsey has served as a special agent with NOAA since November 2001, and is currently working on attaining a Master's in Criminal Justice from the Citadel. While this case is the largest in his career at NOAA, he also led a large undercover operation in South Carolina in 2003 which focused on dealers and restaurants purchasing fish illegally.

The U.S. Attorney's Award is given to distinguished agents and officers once a year during the U.S. Attorney's Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee's Annual Conference.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, an agency of the U.S. Commerce Department, is celebrating 200 years of science and service to the nation.  From the establishment of the Survey of the Coast in 1807 by Thomas Jefferson to the formation of the Weather Bureau and the Commission of Fish and Fisheries in the 1870s, much of America 's scientific heritage is rooted in NOAA.

NOAA is dedicated to enhancing economic security and national safety through the prediction and research of weather and climate-related events and information service delivery for transportation, and by providing environmental stewardship of our nation's coastal and marine resources. Through the emerging Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS), NOAA is working with its federal partners, more than 60 countries and the European Commission to develop a global monitoring network that is as integrated as the planet it observes, predicts and protects.

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