Man fined $50K in Vermont for illegally importing carvings made of sperm whale teeth, walrus tusk

2025-01-12 16:22:09 source:lotradecoin upcoming token launches category:Scams

BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — A California man has been fined $50,000 in Vermont for illegally importing carvings made from sperm whale teeth and walrus tusk across the U.S.-Canadian border, federal prosecutors said.

The man and his wife arrived at the Highgate Springs border crossing after buying nine Inuit carvings from an art gallery in Montreal, according to court papers. He told a U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer that he was bringing back one stone statue from Quebec, court papers said. The officer inspected the trunk and found nine statues, including four made of ivory, the Vermont U.S. attorney’s office said.

The man, who was living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the time, admitted that the four were made from walrus tusk and Customs and Border Protection seized them. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service later determined that three of those carvings were made of sperm whale teeth and the fourth was made of walrus tusk, prosecutors said.

The 69-year-old man on Tuesday pleaded guilty in federal court in Burlington to a misdemeanor charge of unlawfully importing wildlife parts and was sentenced to a fine of $50,000. A phone message was left with his attorney, seeking comment.

Sperm whales are an endangered species and are protected under the Endangered Species Act and, like walruses, are also protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the U.S. attorney’s office said.

Certain import and export permits are required to import parts from these protected mammals into the U.S., which the man had not obtained, prosecutors said.

More:Scams

Recommend

Wisconsin kayaker who faked his death and fled to Eastern Europe is in custody, online records show

GREEN LAKE, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin man who faked his own drowningand left his wife and three childr

'Jeopardy!' boss really wants Emma Stone to keep trying to get on the show

PASADENA, Calif. − Emma Stone, don't give up your "Jeopardy!" hopes yet.The actress recently reveale

Dexter Scott King remembered during memorial as keeper of his father Martin Luther King, Jr.'s dream

Dexter Scott King, the late son of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King, was remembere