Fish store owner gets probation for selling endangered and invasive fish

Fish store owner gets probation for selling endangered and invasive fish

Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

11/18/2021

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.