A now-closed Santa Monica restaurant and two sushi chefs who worked there were indicted Thursday by a federal grand jury on charges of smuggling and selling the meat of a protected whale species.

The parent company of The Hump Sushi Bar & Restaurant, which closed at Santa Monica Airport in 2010, could be fined $1.2 million. Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, 48, of Culver City, Susumu Ueda, 39, of Lawndale, and Typhoon Restaurant, Inc., are accused of illegally importing and selling the meat of sei whales.

It is illegal to sell any kind of whale meat in the United States. Sei whales are protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 and are listed as endangered in the Endangered Species Act of 1973. The company and Yamamoto were initially charged in 2010, but the counts were soon dismissed. However, further investigation resulted in new charges, prosecutors said.

The first word of the unusual offering at The Hump came in 2010 from the Oscar-winning team behind the documentary "The Cove." The filmmakers tipped off federal officials that the restaurant was serving sushi identified as sei whale. The meat was discovered in visits to the restaurant by undercover agents and environmental advocates who pocketed the sushi for testing.

Yamamoto is charged with concealing the purchase of whale meat and the restaurant's source, and instructing other sushi chefs at The Hump to do the same. Ueda is charged with lying to a federal agent about the source of the whale meat. If convicted, Yamamoto could face a maximum sentence of 67 years in federal prison; Ueda could face a maximum of 10 years.

Ueda's attorney, James Spertus, said his client was "behind a counter making sushi" and would have had "no idea where the meat came from."

"If you buy some oranges from the store, you do know where they came from," Spertus said. "Ralphs knows—you do not." According to the indictment, the whale meat was ordered through a seafood dealer named Ginichi Ohira.