Man Pleads Guilty in Caviar Case

A Muscovite who arrived at Los Angeles International Airport lugging two suitcases pleaded guilty in federal court Monday to lying about their contents--200 jars of expensive sturgeon caviar.

The caviar that 28-year-old Dmitri Alekseyevich Neposedov was bringing into the country weighed 50 pounds and had a retail value of up to $75,000, said Diane Petrula of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Under a recently enacted law designed to protect the world’s rapidly disappearing sturgeon population, anyone carrying more than half a pound of caviar into the United States must produce permits showing that it was legally harvested.

In exchange for Neposedov’s plea of guilty to making a false statement to airport customs inspectors, federal prosecutors agreed to drop a smuggling charge against him.

Neposedov faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced on Feb. 7 by U.S. District Judge Nora M. Manella. After he serves his term, he is likely to be deported, authorities said.