SAN FRANCISCO — Antonietta Nguyen, 57, former chief financial officer of ABS Seafood, Inc., has been sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for orchestrating multiple fraud schemes that cost the company over $9 million.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston imposed the sentence on Nov. 14. Nguyen had been convicted in June on 12 felony counts, including wire fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion.
Evidence presented during her two-week trial showed that from at least 2015 through 2020, Nguyen misappropriated approximately $2.7 million from ABS Seafood. She used company funds to pay personal credit card bills, property taxes, her children’s college tuition, and over $1 million in luxury goods from brands such as Louis Vuitton, Hermès, Goyard, Chanel, and Neiman Marcus. Nguyen also provided corporate credit cards to family members and authorized charges for luxury vacations paid by the company.
Nguyen, a minority shareholder of ABS Seafood, also orchestrated an inflated invoice scheme with family members who operated Pescaderia Pacifica International, Inc., a Filipino seafood exporter. Through false invoices, ABS Seafood overpaid for imported seafood, and some of the excess funds were funneled back to Nguyen’s family accounts.
The court further found that Nguyen failed to report millions of dollars in personal income, resulting in $121,336 in unpaid federal taxes.
U.S. Attorney Craig H. Missakian stated, “The defendant devised multiple ways to defraud her business partners of several millions of dollars and got away with it for over six years. She exploited her position of trust in order to fund a lavish lifestyle for herself and her family members.”
Nguyen had faced statutory maximum penalties of up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud and conspiracy counts, plus fines of up to $250,000 per count, and additional penalties for tax evasion and money laundering.
