[MSN] Animal parts smuggler gets probation

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Animal parts smuggler gets probation

By Jeff Coen
Tribune staff reporter
Published September 27, 2006, 2:05 PM CDT

The owner of a River North art gallery who admitted smuggling $72,000 worth of ivory carvings and other protected wildlife products was sentenced today to 5 years' probation and ordered to serve 1,500 hours of community service.

Glen Joffe, owner of Primitive Art Works, admitted the scheme last April when he pleaded guilty to violating federal laws protecting endangered species.

U.S. District Senior Judge Milton Shadur today also ordered Joffe to surrender artifacts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars

Joffe and his partner, Claudia Ashleigh-Morgan, were indicted in January on federal criminal charges. Prosecutors said the couple had stocked their gallery and their Oak Brook home with ivory carvings, feathered hairpins and items made from tiger, hippopotamus, elephant and sea turtle.

Joffe pleaded guilty to conspiring to import protected wildlife and to illegally possessing a headdress made from the feathers of protected birds. The alleged smuggling occurred from 2001 to 2003.

In his plea agreement, the defendant also admitted that he lied on customs forms while importing ivory carvings worth thousands of dollars in August 2001 and January 2002.

Ashleigh-Morgan pleaded guilty in April to owning the illegal headdress. She was sentenced in June to 3 years' probation, fined $12,000 and ordered to perform 600 hours of community service.

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