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 Charles Magovern of Boulder, Colorado, was charged in July by U.S.
prosecutors in Wyoming with illegally importing fossils – some
dating back 151 million years – to sell to dealers or collectors,
U.S. 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 U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Freudenthal, the top federal
judge in Wyoming, sentenced Magovern last week to one year of
supervised probation, court documents stated.
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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 U.S. 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.
(Editing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Sandra Maler)
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