Restaurant Owner Caught Selling Whale Meat Pleads Guilty

If you’re caught serving whale meat, you’re gonna have a bad time. From 2009 to 2010, a Santa Monica Airport-based restaurant, The Hump, was discovered to be serving whale meat. The parent company, Typhoon Restaurant Inc., and owner Brian Vidor have both pleaded guilty to the crime, reports the Los Angeles Times.

Because it definitely is a crime to sell the the meat of a marine mammal.

Vidor admitted to the court that he knew and allowed his sushi chefs to prepare and serve the whale meat at his restaurant. He and the parent company of the now-closed restaurant will have to jointly pay a fine of $27,000. Typhoon will be placed on 18 months of probation and Vidor, 12 months, if the terms of the plea agreement are accepted.

Among those who also have pleaded guilty are chefs Kiyoshiro Yamamoto and Susumu Ueda, as well as supplier Ginichi Ohira.

Suspicions began when the documentary, The Cove, secretly caught the restaurant selling whale meat at the restaurant. This led to an investigation of the airport restaurant.

It was reported that undercover agents were seated at the sushi bar when chef Yamamoto left through the back door and returned with a package wrapped in plastic. According to an affidavit, he quietly told customers that the protein they were eating was whale meat.

Typhoon Restaurant Inc. and Vidor will be sentenced February 23.

H/T LA Times