SEATTLE – Seven Seas Fish Company of Richmond, British Columbia and company owner John Heras pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to importing into the US fish that had previously been rejected by the FDA as too decomposed and putrid.

The company and Heras admit that between October 2014 and August 2015, they imported more than 9,000 pounds of potentially adulterated fish and agreed to pay a $150,000 fine.

According to records, the company purchased 12,000 pounds of frozen corvina, a white fish similar to sea bass, from a seafood company in Mexico. The FDA examined the fish, determined that one third of the samples were more than 20 percent spoiled, and the shipment was refused entry to the U.S.

Company owner John Heras cooked and ate some of the fish and claimed he found nothing wrong with it, so he encouraged employees to ship over 9,000 pounds of the fish into Washington state anyway.

The FDA has not found any illness linked to those who consumed the fish.

Heras could face to up to a year in prison when sentenced in February.