U.S. auction house head guilty of smuggling 1 mln USD in ivory, rhino horn

A gallery and auction house official in Beverly Hills, California pleaded guilty to smuggling carvings and other items made from protected wildlife with an estimated worth of 1 million U.S. dollars.

Joseph Chait, a senior auction administrator of the I.M. Chait gallery and auction house, pleaded guilty to smuggling elephant ivory, rhinoceros horn and coral in a New York federal court, prosecutors said on Wednesday. He could face up to 10 years in prison under two related charges.

Prosecutors said he falsified customs forms to show that items made from protected wildlife were made of bone, wood or plastic. He also helped overseas clients smuggle such items out of the United States.

The announcement came on the same day as the International Union for Conservation of Nature said in a statement that more than 1,300 rhinos were poached in Africa last year, a record since 2008 when trade in rhino horns became banned in South Africa. The country is reportedly home to 20,000 rhinos, or 80 percent of the world's rhino population.

In January, U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell acknowledged that the United States is "part of the problem" and wants to be "part of the solution" before she left for Africa on an anti-poaching campaign.

"Much of the demand is overseas but a lot of it comes to the USA and involves US citizens," she was quoted by AFP as saying.

Jewell noted a record number of elephants were killed in Africa between 2011 and 2014.

She also condemned trophy hunting after the killing of one of Zimbabwe's oldest and best known lions by an American dentist in July, resulting in outrage worldwide. Endi