Man pleads guilty in fossils case
A fossil dealer was sentenced to one year of probation for his role in smuggling Chinese prehistoric dinosaur artifacts into the US.
|||Denver - A Colorado fossil dealer has been sentenced to one year of probation after pleading guilty to charges related to his role in smuggling more than $570 000 worth of Chinese prehistoric dinosaur artifacts into the United States, federal authorities said on Wednesday.
Charles Magovern of Boulder, Colorado, was charged in July by US prosecutors in Wyoming with illegally importing fossils - some dating back 151 million years - to sell to dealers or collectors, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a statement.
Magovern, 67, conspired to sell Chinese fossils in retail stores or galleries in Vail, Colorado, and Jackson, Wyoming, said Walter Moran, assistant special-agent-in-charge for ICE's Homeland Security Investigations.
He possessed fossils from several prehistoric creatures, including micro-raptors and a protoceratops, a horned dinosaur that was valued at $250 000, ICE officials said.
In all, he played a role in smuggling more than $570 000 worth of Chinese dinosaur artifacts, officials said.
Moran said Magovern was caught as part of a conspiracy investigation that is ongoing and involves the illegal pilfering of fossils in Mongolia and China that later showed up for sale in galleries or auctions.
Magovern made false declarations to customs officials about the value of imported paleontological specimens and mislabeled the items or concealed them with legitimate cargo, authorities said.
Under a plea agreement, he pleaded guilty to making false statements to customs officials as well as aiding and abetting two other people in the conspiracy, and he returned the illegal items in exchange for a sentence of probation instead of prison time, court documents showed.
Chief US District Court Judge Nancy Freudenthal, the top federal judge in Wyoming, sentenced Magovern last week to one year of supervised probation, court documents stated.
Magovern is the second defendant to plead guilty in the fossil-smuggling ring investigation, which Moran said began in 2012 following a tip to authorities from a member of the public.
Last year, John Rolater, one of the men that Magovern aided and abetted, was sentenced to two years of probation and fined $25 000 for offering to sell the illegal items in his Colorado and Wyoming galleries, said John Powell, spokesman for the US Attorney's Office for the District of Wyoming.
Rolater conspired with his Chinese supplier to package “vertebrate fossils in a manner to subvert both Chinese and United States customs and import regulations,” prosecutors said in court papers.
“Not only is the violation of customs laws, but the illegal extraction of these items takes away from the scientific record,” Moran said.
Reuters