The fish case (Russian: рыбное дело, romanized: rybnoe delo, IPA: [ˈrɨbnəjə ˈdʲelə]) or caviar case (Russian: икорное дело, romanized: ikornoe delo, IPA: [ɪˈkornəjə dʲelə]) in the USSR was a series of corruption, misappropriation, and smuggling cases related to fish trade uncovered in the late 1970s.
[1][2] The organized crime group in question is sometimes referred to as the (Soviet) fish mafia.
The illegal operations also involved smuggling caviar out of the country in tins falsely labeled as containing cheap fish.
The involved officials amassed large fortunes of foreign hard currency via the smuggling operations, which they hid in foreign European banks or spent, in large sums, on expensive Western goods.
[6][7] About 200 members of the Ministry of the Fishing Industry were arrested,[6] and the deputy minister Vladimir Rytov [ru] was executed by shooting.