Smuggler of Illegal Coral from Phillippines Sentenced in Federal Court
Although receiving little publicity, our federal government continues to prosecute environmental crimes. On January 14, 2010, Gunther Wenzek, a German national, was sentenced to serve three years on probation and pay a criminal penalty of over $35,000 by Judge Anna J. Brown of the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon for smuggling coral into the Port of Portland, Ore., the Justice Department announced.The penalty included a criminal fine of $16,510, nearly $10,000 in restitution to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and a community service payment of $8,890.
Wenzek owns a company named CoraPet, based in Essen, Germany, that sells various coral products to retailers in the United States. The investigation was launched in 2007 after Wenzek tried to ship a container loaded with fragments of endangered coral from reefs off the Philippine coast to Portland. After this initial shipment, agents subsequently seized two full containers of endangered coral shipped by Wenzek to a customer in Portland. These two shipments made up a total of over 40 tons of coral.
The corals seized have been identified as corals from the scientific order Scleractinia, genera Porites, Acropora, and Pocillopora, common to Philippine reefs. Due to the threat of extinction, stony corals, such as those seized in this case are protected by international law. Philippine law specifically forbids exports of all coral. Moreover, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species bars importation of the coral Wenzek tried to import to customers in the United States, without a permit.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the National Marine Fisheries Service. The case was prosecuted by U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Oregon and the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section.
