INTERNATIONAL RHINO HORN, ELEPHANT IVORY SMUGGLER SENTENCE TO 70 MONTHS IN PRISON

FROM:  U.S. JUSTICE DEPARTMENT 

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Ringleader of International Rhino Smuggling Conspiracy Sentenced in New Jersey to 70 Months in Prison for Wildlife Trafficking Crimes

Zhifei Li, the owner of an antique business in China, was sentenced today to serve 70 months in prison for heading an illegal wildlife smuggling conspiracy in which 30 rhinoceros horns and numerous objects made from rhino horn and elephant ivory worth more than $4.5 million were smuggled from the United States to China.

The sentence – one of the longest sentences to be imposed in the United States for a wildlife smuggling offense – was announced by Sam Hirsch, the Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the Department of Justice; Paul J. Fishman, U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey; Wifredo A. Ferrer, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; and Dan Ashe, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).

Li, 30, of Shandong, China, the owner of Overseas Treasure Finding in Shandong, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Esther Salas to a total of 11 counts: one count of conspiracy to smuggle and violate the Lacey Act; seven counts of smuggling; one count of illegal wildlife trafficking in violation of the Lacey Act; and two counts of making false wildlife documents.  Judge Salas also imposed the sentence today in Newark federal court.

“Li was the ringleader of a criminal enterprise that spanned the globe and profited from an illegal trade that is pushing endangered animals toward extinction,” said Sam Hirsch, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division.  “As this case clearly demonstrates, rhino trafficking is increasingly organized, well financed, and a threat to the rule of law.  The United States is resolved to bring wildlife traffickers to justice.”

“The multibillion-dollar illegal wildlife market is supplied by animal poaching of unthinkable brutality and fed by those willing to profit from such cruelty,” said U.S. Attorney Fishman.  “Zhifei Li appropriately faces 70 months in prison for orchestrating schemes worth millions of dollars and for violating laws meant to protect the most vulnerable species.”

“Wild populations of rhinos are being slaughtered at appalling rates due to the greed and indifference of criminals like Li and his accomplices,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe. “The sentence handed down today serves notice to other organized trafficking and poaching rings that their crimes will not go unpunished.  We will relentlessly work across the U.S. government and with the international law enforcement community to destroy these networks, while strengthening protections for rhinos in the wild and reducing demand for horn in consumer countries.”

Li was arrested in Florida in January 2013, shortly after arriving in the country, on federal charges brought under seal in New Jersey.  Before he was arrested, he purchased two endangered black rhinoceros horns from an undercover USFWS agent in a Miami Beach hotel room for $59,000 while attending an antique show.  Li was arrested as part of “Operation Crash” – a nationwide effort led by the USFWS and the Justice Department to investigate and prosecute those involved in the black market trade of rhinoceros horns and other protected species.

In papers filed in Newark federal court, Li admitted that he was the “boss” of three antique dealers in the United States whom he paid to help obtain wildlife items and smuggle them to him via Hong Kong.  One of those individuals was Qiang Wang, aka “Jeffrey Wang,” who was sentenced to 37 months in prison on Dec. 5, 2013, in the Southern District of New York .   Li played a leadership and organizational role in the smuggling conspiracy by arranging for financing to pay for the wildlife, purchasing and negotiating prices, directing how to smuggle the items out of the United States, and getting the assistance of additional collaborators in Hong Kong to receive the goods and smuggle them to him in mainland China.

Rhinoceros are an herbivore species of prehistoric origin and one of the largest remaining mega-fauna on earth.  They have no known predators other than humans. All species of rhinoceros are protected under United States and international law.  Since 1976, trade in rhinoceros horn has been regulated under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (known as CITES), a treaty signed by over 170 countries around the world to protect fish, wildlife and plants that are or may become imperiled due to the demands of international markets.

In pleading guilty, Li admitted that he sold 30 smuggled, raw rhinoceros horns worth approximately $3 million – approximately $17,500 per pound – to factories in China where raw rhinoceros horns are carved into fake antiques known as Zuo Jiu (which means “to make it as old” in Mandarin).   In China, there is a centuries old tradition of drinking from an intricately carved “libation cup” made from a rhinoceros horn.  Owning or drinking from such a cup is believed by some to bring good health, and true antiques are highly prized by collectors.  The escalating value of such items has resulted in an increased demand for rhinoceros horn that has helped fuel a thriving black market, including recently carved fake antiques.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Salas ordered Li to serve two years of supervised release and to forfeit $3.5 million in proceeds of his criminal activity as well as several Asian artifacts. Various ivory objects seized by the USFWS as part of the investigation have also been surrendered.

The investigation is continuing and is being handled by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service’s Office of Law Enforcement, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kathleen P. O’Leary and Barbara Ward of the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division and Asset Forfeiture and Money Laundering Unit, Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Watts-FitzGerald of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida and Senior Counsel Richard A. Udell of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section of the Environment and Natural Resources Division.

REMARKS AT WILDLIFE CONSERVATION DAY RECEPTION

Photo Credit:  U.S. Wildlife Fish And Game.

FROM: U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT

Robert D. Hormats
Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
Beijing, China
December 4, 2012
　

Thank you, Ambassador Locke, for that kind introduction.

It’s a special pleasure to be in China for "Wildlife Conservation Day," and I want to thank all of you for your leadership in this critical area.

After all, your country is home to one of the most successful wildlife conservation efforts of recent times, having successfully increased the giant panda population from approximately 1000 in the 1970s to more than 1,600 by the 2004 census.

As you know, trafficking of wildlife also is a growing problem in Africa, and incidents of poaching in that part of the world are increasing at an alarming rate.

Rhino poaching, for example, has increased dramatically in South Africa over the last five years from only 13 rhinos poached in 2007 to 448 in 2011.

Killings of elephants for ivory unfortunately also are increasing. Earlier this year, for example, more than 300 elephants were slaughtered in Cameroon by heavily armed poachers.

Hong Kong authorities recently announced that they had confiscated $1.4 million worth of ivory that arrived smuggled in a shipping container from Tanzania, the second large seizure of tusks in a one-month span.

This issue has deep roots for me. During graduate school I spent a year in East Africa and worked as an assistant wildlife guide in some of East Africa’s national parks.

So, for me, poaching is a deeply personal outrage.

On November 8, Secretary Clinton hosted a high-level discussion at the State Department, issuing a call to action for all of us to work together to stem this growing crisis.

Our decision to organize this meeting came from our conviction that the nature of wildlife trafficking has changed.

We have always considered wildlife trafficking a critical conservation issue, and have been leaders in both global and national efforts to conserve wildlife.

However, the issue has now become an issue of national security, rule of law, health, and economic development.

Transnational criminal groups connected to terrorists, drug traffickers, and weapons traffickers, and well-armed poachers, are increasingly involved in the illicit trade.

Large-scale commercial wildlife trafficking now threatens security and stability in countries across Africa and parts of Asia.

I’ve heard of these concerns directly from African leaders. I travelled to Africa this summer, where I discussed this issue with leaders of Botswana and Namibia, and I joined Secretary Clinton in South Africa, where we heard about their challenges in protecting their national parks and the wildlife.

Many consumers do not understand that animals – and in some cases people who try to protect them – die in order to produce the turtle shell bracelet, the rhino horn powder, or the ivory carving.

To reduce demand, we need to educate people – make them aware that what they are buying is illegal, their actions support criminal networks, animals are being killed, and people are suffering as a direct result of that purchase.

We need to do a better job of understanding the entire supply chain – from poachers, to the transport sector, to sellers, and to buyers.

We also need to do a better job of tracking down the networks, of following the money flows, and of rooting out corrupt officials who help to move the illegal products all along the way.

To stem the latest trends in poaching, the Department of State has developed a four-pronged approach to:

(1) focus our diplomatic engagement – by working with you and other governments -to strengthen political will,

(2) raise public awareness, through events like the one here today,

(3) identify training needs, and

(4) to work cooperatively with NGO and private sector partners.

We have been working through our diplomatic channels to engage leaders on this issue – at APEC, with ASEAN leaders on the margins of the UN General Assembly, in Washington, and at the East Asia Summit – so that we can take steps cooperatively to address this problem.

We also are working closely with NGOs and the private sector to identify ways we can cooperate.

We collectively share a responsibility to be good stewards of our planet and support the development and security of countries suffering from wildlife trafficking.

That’s why combating wildlife trafficking has become a foreign policy priority for the Department of State. And we seek to cooperate closely with China in this endeavor.

Our two countries unfortunately find ourselves in the position of being destination countries for illegally trafficked wildlife parts.

We plan to take tough action. We urge China to do so, too, to put a halt to illegal wildlife imports.

In this context, therefore, I have met with Ambassador Zhang Yesui in Washington, I met earlier today with State Forestry Administration Vice Minister Zhang Jianrong, and prior to this event, I had the opportunity to discuss the issue with NGOs.

It is very important that the United States and China – our governments, our companies, our civil society, and our citizens – continue to collaborate on this important issue.

Thank you for being here, and I look forward to meeting many of you.