chipmaker
Active Member
I found this to be quite interesting. Things are only going to get tougher in the future too in regards to acquiring decent sand and suitable rock. I can justb see their prices going up to help defray their court fines and costs as well as the losses on that shipment of liverock! Better get it while you can afford it and find it.
From: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls/PressR...061108-04.html
FORT PIERCE COMPANY AND ITS PRESIDENT PLEAD GUILTY AND ARE SENTENCED FOR ILLEGALLY IMPORTING CORAL ROCK INTO THE UNITED STATES
November 8, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Eddie McKissick, Resident Agent in Charge, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Hal Robbins, Special Agent in Charge, NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement, Southeast Division, and Jesus Torres, Special Agent in Charge, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, announced that Carib Sea, Inc., a Fort Pierce-based aquarium supply company, and Richard Greenfield, 46, of Fort Pierce, pled guilty and were sentenced in federal District Court on November 7, 2006, in connection with the illegal importation of more than 42,000 pounds of protected coral rock from Haiti to the United States. Both defendants were charged in connection with a shipment that arrived in March 2006, contrary to the laws of the United States and an international treaty intended to protect threatened and endangered species of wildlife, all in violation of the federal Lacey Act, Title 16, United States Code, Sections 3372 and 3373.
United States District Court Judge Marcia G. Cooke accepted the guilty pleas of the two defendants and proceeded to immediate sentencing. Carib Sea, Inc. was sentenced to a three year period of court-supervised probation and ordered to make a $25,000 community service payment to the South Florida National Park Trust to assist in funding and enhancing the existing Coral Nursery Program in Biscayne National Park.
Richard Greenfield was also placed on three years probation, and ordered to pay a criminal fine in the amount of $25,000. Additionally, the defendants were held jointly liable for storage and transportation costs exceeding $10,000 which related to the March 2006 seizure and approximately 40,000 pounds of coral rock found and seized by the government at the company’s business location. The defendants are also obligated to publish a notice in three publications related to the aquarium trade, explaining their violation of law and the applicable requirements of CITES and U.S. regulations.
The coral rock involved in this matter, with a market value of approximately $75,000, is being transferred to a non-profit research institution, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, to avoid its use in commerce.
According to the Information filed in this matter and a statement of facts presented in Court, in March 2006, the defendants were involved in the importation of a cargo-container load of coral rock from Haiti. Under a convention known as “CITES,” the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, more than 150 countries have banded together to provide protection to a variety of species in danger of imminent extinction, or which may become so, if trade in their specimens is not carefully regulated. That protection extends to all coral rock, which is an invertebrate within the phylum coelenterate.
Part two --continuation of this post in next post due to size constraints.
From: http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/fls/PressR...061108-04.html
FORT PIERCE COMPANY AND ITS PRESIDENT PLEAD GUILTY AND ARE SENTENCED FOR ILLEGALLY IMPORTING CORAL ROCK INTO THE UNITED STATES
November 8, 2006
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
R. Alexander Acosta, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Eddie McKissick, Resident Agent in Charge, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Hal Robbins, Special Agent in Charge, NOAA Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement, Southeast Division, and Jesus Torres, Special Agent in Charge, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, announced that Carib Sea, Inc., a Fort Pierce-based aquarium supply company, and Richard Greenfield, 46, of Fort Pierce, pled guilty and were sentenced in federal District Court on November 7, 2006, in connection with the illegal importation of more than 42,000 pounds of protected coral rock from Haiti to the United States. Both defendants were charged in connection with a shipment that arrived in March 2006, contrary to the laws of the United States and an international treaty intended to protect threatened and endangered species of wildlife, all in violation of the federal Lacey Act, Title 16, United States Code, Sections 3372 and 3373.
United States District Court Judge Marcia G. Cooke accepted the guilty pleas of the two defendants and proceeded to immediate sentencing. Carib Sea, Inc. was sentenced to a three year period of court-supervised probation and ordered to make a $25,000 community service payment to the South Florida National Park Trust to assist in funding and enhancing the existing Coral Nursery Program in Biscayne National Park.
Richard Greenfield was also placed on three years probation, and ordered to pay a criminal fine in the amount of $25,000. Additionally, the defendants were held jointly liable for storage and transportation costs exceeding $10,000 which related to the March 2006 seizure and approximately 40,000 pounds of coral rock found and seized by the government at the company’s business location. The defendants are also obligated to publish a notice in three publications related to the aquarium trade, explaining their violation of law and the applicable requirements of CITES and U.S. regulations.
The coral rock involved in this matter, with a market value of approximately $75,000, is being transferred to a non-profit research institution, Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute, to avoid its use in commerce.
According to the Information filed in this matter and a statement of facts presented in Court, in March 2006, the defendants were involved in the importation of a cargo-container load of coral rock from Haiti. Under a convention known as “CITES,” the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, more than 150 countries have banded together to provide protection to a variety of species in danger of imminent extinction, or which may become so, if trade in their specimens is not carefully regulated. That protection extends to all coral rock, which is an invertebrate within the phylum coelenterate.
Part two --continuation of this post in next post due to size constraints.