Mary Mahoney’s Old French House, a renowned restaurant in Biloxi, and its co-owner and manager, Anthony Charles Cvitanovich, have been sentenced for their roles in a long-running conspiracy to misbrand seafood.

Prosecutors revealed that the restaurant substituted inexpensive imported fish for the premium local species advertised on its menu, deceiving customers over a period that stretched from 2002 to 2019.

As part of a plea agreement, the corporation was sentenced to five years of probation and ordered to pay $1,499,000 in penalties. This included a $149,000 criminal fine and $1,350,000 in forfeiture of proceeds gained through fraudulent seafood sales. The court also imposed strict supervision conditions on the business.

Cvitanovich, 55, pled guilty to a felony charge of misbranding seafood in 2018 and 2019. He was sentenced to three years of probation, including four months of home detention, and fined $10,000.

The charges stemmed from an investigation by the Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigations. The court officially accepted the plea agreement on May 30, 2024.