Seafood broker pleads guilty to smuggling potentially tainted shellfish

Seattle – A Burien, Washington, seafood broker pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to smuggling goods from the United States, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown. Jeffrey Hallin Olsen, 52, owner of Absolute Seafoods LLC, admitted he falsified documents and lied to authorities about disposing of 46 cases of potentially tainted geoduck from Alaska.  Olsen will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour on May 17, 2022.

According to the information filed in court, on February 20 or 21, 2019, Olsen purchased geoduck from various Alaska divers.  The geoduck were mixed together in crates for shipping, and were picked up at Sea-Tac Airport, to be trucked to Vancouver B.C and shipped to Hong Kong.  Olsen obtained a U.S. Department of Commerce Export Health Certificate stating that the geoduck met health requirements.

One day after the purchase, one of the divers notified Alaska state officials that he had mistakenly harvested his geoduck from an area that had not been approved for harvest.   The area had not been tested for paralytic shellfish poisoning.  An Alaska Wildlife Trooper notified Olsen that he needed to destroy the shipment as it was unsafe to consume.  Because the illegally harvested geoduck had been mixed in with the legal clams, Olsen was told the entire shipment had to be destroyed.  Olsen told the trooper he would destroy the geoduck.

Instead of destroying the geoduck, Olsen told the shipping company to hold the truck in Marysville, Washington.  Olsen had ten crates taken off the truck and brought back to his Burien home.  He had the company transport the remaining 36 boxes on to Vancouver where they were illegally shipped to Hong Kong.

Olson took pictures of the 10 crates that were brought back to his home.  Olsen prepared false shipping paperwork that identified the contents of the crates as “fresh Yelloweye,” then shipped the geoduck to a buyer in Oakland, California.  Olsen used the pictures of those crates and a bill from the King County garbage transfer station to try to fool Alaska authorities into thinking he had in fact destroyed the clams. 

No illness has been reported in connection with the geoduck.

Smuggling goods from the United States is punishable by up to ten years of imprisonment. The ultimate sentence is up to Judge Coughenour who will consider U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The case was investigated by NOAA Fisheries Enforcement, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police and the Alaska Department of Public Safety, with assistance from the California Department of Fish and Game, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans – Canada. 

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Seth Wilkinson.