A lawsuit filed by South Korean food distribution company CJ Freshway against Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.A.-based Meshquat International alleging its owner, Ali Ownejazayeri, operated a fraudulent scheme that cost it USD 1 million (EUR 900,000) has been delayed due to Ownejazayeri’s bankruptcy filing.
According to the suit, filed in October 2021 in U.S. District Court in California, Ownejazayeri allegedly bribed CJ Freshway Salesperson Minho “Mike” Lim to generate fraudulent invoices and arrange payments to Meshquat International. Beginning around October 2017, Ownejazayeri began paying Lim USD 10,000 (EUR 9,000) per container of tuna purchased by CJ Freshway from Meshquat, and paid kickbacks to encourage Lim to up the company’s advance payments on shipments and to continue to steer business to Meshquat, the suit alleges.
Through August 2018, Lim approved 12 purchase order agreements for tuna supplied by Meshquat collectively valued at USD 1.6 million (EUR 1.4 million), but only one shipment was made partially fulfilling a single order, according to the lawsuit. CJ Freshway claims it is owed nearly USD 1.1 million (EUR 991,000), plus interest worth USD 327,000 (EUR 295,000).
In a counterclaim, Ownejazayeri alleges he suffered at least USD 453,000 (EUR 408,000) in damages from a breach of contract committed by CJ Freshway, with Lim demanding higher container fees and “extracting these tributes from Meshquat and Ali for his personal gain.”
“Because Minho Lim was the only [CJ Freshway] employee in charge of placing orders and setting terms, Meshquat and Ali reasonably believed that they had no alternative but to accede to these demands in order to continue securing business orders from CJ Freshway,” the counterclaim alleges, claiming Ownejazayeri was “completely unaware of [Lim’s] fraudulent conduct.”
The lawsuit was abruptly put on hold on 18 January, 2023, when Ownejazayeri and Meshquat International filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
A separate suit filed by CJ Freshway against Lim and his companies Kaldea, Inc., and N9 International Trading resulted in a jury trial, which was decided on 18 February, 2022, in favor of CJ Freshway. Lim was ordered to pay USD 1.56 million (EUR 1.41 million), and his mother, Ki Soon Seo, whom the jury found to have participated in aiding and abetting Lim in his scheme, was ordered to pay USD 930,000 (EUR 838,000). An appeal of the judgment is pending.
According to the suit, Lim also engaged in a similar scheme with Cooper City, Florida, U.S.A.-based MiCal Seafood. Alex Baumer, a representative of MiCal Seafood, declined to comment on the case, but told SeafoodSource he has also done business with Ownejazayeri in the past.
MiCal Owner Ricardo Torres told SeafoodSource in an email Alex Baumer has not been employed by MiCal since 2017.
"Mical had nothing to do with this lawsuit. We owe no one any monies," Torres said.
On 26 August, 2019, Lim sued CJ Freshway, alleging he was held against his will at the company’s office on 27 August , 2018, for 12 hours in a small conference room, where five company representatives performed an interrogation, without allowing him to leave or communicate with anyone outside the company. On three occasions, Lim alleges, CJ Freshway representatives “intentionally and unlawfully exercised the implied threat of force” to detain Lim and to compel him to sign a document falsely stating he had consented to stay after hours for the purposes of cooperating with the audit, the suit alleges. Lim suffered mental and emotional damage as a result of the incident, according to the lawsuit, which remains unresolved, though CJ Freshway filed a request for dismissal of the suit on 3 March, 2022.
A lawyer for CJ Freshway, Justin Park, declined to discuss any of the cases with SeafoodSource. Min Ho Lim could not be reached for comment.
In an interview with SeafoodSource, Ownejazayeri called the CJ Freshway lawsuit “garbage.”
“It is their employee that fabricated documents,” he said.
Ownejazayeri said Lim was the sole representative of CJ Freshway who he dealt with, and while he had doubts about the payments Lim demanded of him, he never called the company to inquire about their legitimacy.
“I thought this is the way they do business, and they did it this way with every producer,” he said.
Meshquat accepted payments from CJ Freshway during seasonal lulls in fishing in order to remain operational, according to Ownejazayeri.
“They were aware that they were supporting Meshquat during seven months of no fish coming in,” he said.
Ownejazayeri denied he falsified any invoices or bills of lading.
“Every single container was documented, stamped by the government of that country, fully documented correctly. There was nothing falsified by my side,” he said.
Ownejazayeri said he has offered a settlement to CJ Freshway but has been rejected. He said he himself was defrauded by business partners in Oman, where his company’s processing and shipping operations were based.
“Anybody who knows me knows who I am. I worked with integrity all my life,” he said.
Asked whether he paid Lim kickbacks in order to facilitate a business relationship, Ownejazayeri said he could not comment on that issue due to the pending litigation.
Ownejazayeri said he continues to operate a separate seafood business, A.J. Sea Foods, selling tuna sourced from Indonesia. He declined to discuss the business in further detail.
Three former clients of Meshquat International told SeafoodSource they had lost money in their business dealings with the company, and another said he had recovered a payment made to the company when he did not receive a promised shipment, but all declined to be named or to discuss the details of their interactions with Ownejazayeri.
A former business partner, Russell Protentis, said he and Ownejazayeri went into business together exporting seafood products from Iran, but eventually switched …
Photo courtesy of Jim Bickerton
