Caviar distributor off the hook, no more prison time for import scheme

(CBS/AP) Isidoro "Mario" Garbarino, a New York caviar distributor who evaded arrest for nearly a quarter century, won't spend any more time in prison for his illegal sturgeon-egg import scheme.

Garbarino was sentenced Monday in Manhattan to time served for unlawfully importing more than 100,000 pounds of Russian and Iranian caviar in the 1980s.

The 69-year-old Garbarino has been jailed since September. He was arrested by U.S. marshals after he was caught changing planes in Panama.

He admitted that he used schemes to avoid high taxes while importing caviar worth more than $10 million from 1984 to 1987.

Originally charged in a November 1987 indictment, he fled the country in July 1989. He has agreed to pay $3 million in restitution.