- Location
- TampaBayArea, FL
Nyack man accused of smuggling live coral into U.S.
- Thread starter TheHun
- Start date
- Location
- The Big City
Not good. Say it ain't so Joe.:sad2:
- Location
- Brooklyn, NY
Oh no 
- Location
- NY
Wow!!
- Location
- Apopka, Florida
Wow :-/ this is why member 2 member sells is looking more interesting to me....
4 pieces of dendrophyllia = $2500???
Ironic how the government arrests him for under reporting the value of coral so they get to take less of his money. But nothing happens to them for over reporting the value of coral to make the crime seem worse.
Ironic how the government arrests him for under reporting the value of coral so they get to take less of his money. But nothing happens to them for over reporting the value of coral to make the crime seem worse.
- Location
- The Big City
You really don't have any idea have large the colonies where, or if they were very rare. Also, from the article it seemed that Joe was cooperating with the government, as he told them things, which I'm sure included what the corals were actually worth. I also can't image his lawyer not fighting them over the value of the corals, which is something that can easily be verified by contacting company that shipped them to him. In the end, very stupid on his part.
- Location
- Flushing NY 11355
In the article, it said reselling value, that is the retail price in USA.
Assume $40 retail per head $2500/40 => 62 heads. and imported in "12 pieces". So it's about 5 heads per pcs and looks very standard in the trade size.
In the article, the agent said, "The coral is protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora". I think many of us are not familiar with it being an endangered species. If we run a quick search thru the endangered list, I don't think we can find it. May be I just missed it. If you see it in the list, please do report back so that all hobbyists know about the status. However, I must add there was another bust about the same type of coral years ago, so may be it's illegal to bring into US after all.
In the article, the focus seems to be about fraudulent invoices so he could mislead officials about the value of an import, under-reporting it by hundreds of dollars.
Assume $40 retail per head $2500/40 => 62 heads. and imported in "12 pieces". So it's about 5 heads per pcs and looks very standard in the trade size.
In the article, the agent said, "The coral is protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora". I think many of us are not familiar with it being an endangered species. If we run a quick search thru the endangered list, I don't think we can find it. May be I just missed it. If you see it in the list, please do report back so that all hobbyists know about the status. However, I must add there was another bust about the same type of coral years ago, so may be it's illegal to bring into US after all.
In the article, the focus seems to be about fraudulent invoices so he could mislead officials about the value of an import, under-reporting it by hundreds of dollars.
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- Location
- Brooklyn, NY
CITES is not the same as Endangered species. CITES is a trade agreement between nations and currently from my understanding there are no trade agreements between the US and any of the exporting nations of Dendrophyllia thus it is illegal to import them period. Though fairly common in the trade, NONE of them are legal. How that happens I'm not really sure.
- Location
- Flushing NY 11355
That starts to make sense.
- Location
- Brooklyn
"At that hearing, a judge ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation"
Odd.
Odd.
- Location
- Huntington
To explain CITES as simple as possible, species that are listed are given "X" number of permits for collection. These permits are sold to collectors and each permit represents 1 individual specimen. Permits are replenished over time to allow species to regrow/populate. That's why some corals that are very common are sometimes hard to find, when the permits run out collection ceases until new permits are issued. That's the basics.
Reef Fixations
vendor
- Location
- South Hackensack, NJ
I don't know in the case of Dendro but in the case of Rhizos, I think it's becuase when it's closed it could like similiar to wall spawn/hammers/torch and maybe even acanthophyllias because of their skeletal structures.
EDIT: it can be hard to tell thru 3 cloudy bags and sometimes tinted water.
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