The owner of a tropical fish store with a prior conviction for trying to smuggle fish into the U.S. was sentenced Thursday to home detention and community service for trafficking in endangered and invasive fish species.
U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer imposed five years of probation on Anthony Nguyen, including 180 days of home detention and 225 hours of community service.
Nguyen, 49, owner of Ichiban Tropical Fish in Pittsburgh, pleaded guilty in July to violating the federal Lacey Act by trafficking in endangered Asian arowana and invasive snakeheads.
Nguyen specialized in the sale of exotic freshwater fish.
He admitted that he sold illegally imported arowana, which are native to Southeast Asia and protected by the Endangered Species Act, in 2016.
Arowana are the most expensive freshwater fish in the world.
Nguyen also admitted to selling snakeheads in 2019 in violation of Pennsylvania law. Snakeheads, also native to Asia, are not endangered but are an invasive, aggressive species that many states, including Pennsylvania, have restricted because of the damage they have done to native fish.
As part of Nguyen's plea, he accepted responsibility for falsifying documents related to a snakehead shipment.
In court papers, prosecutors said Nguyen is a "recidivist trafficker in protected fish" with an arrest in 2008 for trying to smuggle arowana into the U.S.
He got probation in that case.
This time, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric Olshan and Assistant Attorney General Todd Kim, he should go to jail for a month in addition to the probation in part to deter other traffickers.
"This is a billion-dollar industry in the United States, and Asian arowana are believed to be the single most expensive freshwater fish in that industry," they said in sentencing papers. "An entire [book] was written about the illegal Asian arowana trade, cataloging the black market, describing sales of individual fish for more than $150,000, and highlighting the deleterious impact on Asian arowana in the wild."
The book is "The Dragon Behind the Glass: A True Story of Power, Obsession and the World's Most Coveted Fish."
Nguyen's public defender, Jay Finkelstein, said a month behind bars isn't necessary.
"Although this is not Mr. Nguyen’s first offense with regard to these type of fish, this appears to have been a culturally related fascination with these type of fish," he said. "This offense involves two fish and a very small amount of money received by Mr. Nguyen."
The judge sided with the defense and allowed Nguyen to avoid jail.
First Published: November 18, 2021, 10:36 p.m.
