Man gets year in prison in ivory, rhino horn smuggling
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}An auction house administrator has been sentenced in New York to a year and a day in prison after admitting a role in smuggling about $1 million-worth of items made from rhinoceros horn, elephant ivory and coral.
Joseph Chait was sentenced Wednesday in federal court after pleading guilty this year to two criminal charges. The 38-year-old Chait is the senior auction administrator of the I.M. Chait Asian art gallery and auction house in Beverly Hills, California. Chait also was fined $10,000.
Assistant Attorney General John Cruden noted in a news release that the African Elephant, the rhinoceros and coral are acutely threatened species that have undergone huge population losses in recent decades.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Prosecutors say Chait personally falsified customs forms, saying the precious items were made of bone, wood or plastic.