BEVERLY HILLS, CALIF.
The senior auction official at Beverly Hills Gallery plead guilty to conspiring to smuggle wildlife products made from rhinoceros horn, elephant ivory and coral.
The products had a value of about $1 million, according to officials.
Joseph Chait faces up to five years in prison for conspiring to smuggle wildlife products and up to five years in prison for violating the Lacey Act.
“Joseph Chait and his co-conspirators trafficked in wildlife worth a market value of at least $1 million, deliberately flouting laws put in place to protect endangered species such as rhinoceros,” said U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
Chait’s sentencing is scheduled for June 22.
“Rhinos and elephants have been on earth for millennia but are now at grave risk due to the illegal wildlife trade,” said John C. Cruden, Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division. “The United States and other destination markets have a special responsibility to help save these beloved creatures from extinction. Those in the auction industry need to be responsible and not turn a blind eye to the fact that trade in protected animal parts is highly regulated. Illegal wildlife trafficking takes many forms and those who deliberately break the rules and engage in smuggling will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”
According to the evidence submitted in court, this is what happened:
- Chait and his co-conspirators engaged in illegal trafficking of wildlife with a market value of at least $1 million.
- Chait personally falsified customs forms by stating that rhinoceros horn and elephant ivory items were made of bone, wood or plastic.
- For example, during Asia Week in New York City in or about March 2011, Chait was approached about the potential sale of a carving of Guanyin, an East Asian spiritual figure made from rhinoceros horn.
- Despite knowing that it was not a genuine antique, Chait and his co-conspirators accepted the Rhino Carving for consignment, advertised the sale to foreign clients in China and put the Rhino Carving on the cover of Auction House-1’s catalogue in connection with an auction of Asian art and antiques.
- After the Rhino Carving sold at auction for $230,000, Chait offered to make a false document for the buyer to help the buyer smuggle the item out of the country.
- The fake invoice falsely stated that the item cost $108.75 and was made of plastic.
- Chait and his co-conspirators also sold ivory carvings to another foreign customer and provided those carvings to that customer’s courier, even after learning that the customer had been arrested in China for smuggling ivory purchased from Chait’s auction house.
Chait and his co-conspirators also conspired to aid smuggling in other ways:
Wildlife items were shipped to or picked up by third party shippers, who then re-shipped the items out of the country to foreign buyers without the required declaration or permits, according to authorities.
Members of the conspiracy provided packing materials to foreign wildlife buyers to assist them in handcarrying the wildlife out of the country, officials said.
Foreign wildlife buyers where not charged a state sales tax if they showed a foreign passport and itinerary for an international flight as proof the item would be leaving the country which Chait and his co-conspirators knew was insufficient time to obtain an export permit.
Protected wildlife was smuggled into the United States without declaration or permits and then sold at auction.
Rhinoceros are an herbivore species of prehistoric origin and one of the largest remaining mega-fauna on earth. They have no known predators other than humans, officials said.
The trade in rhinoceros horn and elephant ivory has been restricted since 1976 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, a treaty signed by over 170 countries around the world, according to officials.
Trade in protected wildlife such as rhinoceros horn and elephant ivory has been significantly restricted in the last two years as the result of a Presidential Executive Order except for those instances where sellers can prove that the item is a genuine antique that is more than 100 years of age, authorities said.