American big game hunter charged by US court for violating endangered species act

Elephant trophy tusks sold 

May 2013. Charles Kokesh was indicted by a federal grand jury in Florida for violating the Endangered Species Act and the Lacey Act by selling two African elephant tusks and for making false accounts of wildlife related to that sale, the US Justice Department has announced.

‘Sport-hunted African elephant'

The three count indictment alleges that Kokesh legally imported a sport-hunted African elephant trophy mount from Namibia, but thereafter illegally sold the two tusks to a buyer in Florida. The sale price was approximately $8,100, paid in a combination of currency and guns. After the sale, Kokesh allegedly falsely described that sale, in an email to personnel at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, as a shipment to an appraiser in anticipation of a donation to a non-profit entity. Kokesh similarly falsely accounted for the location and disposition of the tusks in subsequent correspondence. Each false account and record is charged under the Lacey Act.

African elephants are protected under the Endangered Species Act and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Both the United States and Namibia are signatories to CITES. African elephant populations in Namibia are listed in Appendix II of CITES, which includes species that are not necessarily threatened with extinction now, but may become so unless trade in specimens of such species is strictly regulated. Since 2000, the Namibian African elephant listing has specified that the species cannot be used for commercial purposes. 

Possible fine

The maximum penalty for the charged violation of the Endangered Species Act is up to six months in prison and a $25,000 fine. The maximum penalty for making a false statement is up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/trophy-tusks.html