U.S. Outfitter Indicted for Russian Wildlife Imports

HOUSTON, Texas, September 12, 2007 (ENS) - A Virginia hunting outfitter was indicted today in Houston, accused of breaking U.S. and Russian wildlife laws during a 2002 hunting trip to Russia.

Robert Kern, the president of the Hunting Consortium, a hunting outfitter based in Berryville, Virginia, and the company itself were both indicted by a federal grand jury for violating the Lacey Act, said Ronald Tenpas, acting assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division.

The Lacey Act prohibits anyone from importing, exporting, transporting, selling, receiving, acquiring or purchasing in foreign commerce any wildlife taken, possessed, transported or sold in violation of any foreign law related to wildlife.

The indictment is based on a hunt in Russia in the summer of 2002 that was organized by Kern.

Robert Kern, president of the Hunting Consortium (Photo courtesy Hunting Consortium

The use of helicopters in the taking of wildlife is prohibited by Russian law. The trophy parts of the wildlife were then transported from Russia and imported into the United States at an airport in Houston.

Kern and the Hunting Consortium are each charged with a felony violation of the Lacey Act, which carries a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for Kern, and a $500,000 fine for the Hunting Consortium.

The investigation was led by special agents of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and is being prosecuted by the Environmental Crimes Section of the Department of Justice.

The Hunting Consortium is a multinational corporation with home offices in Berryville, an information office in Rednitzhembach, Germany, a service office and outfitting base in Moscow. The corporation has full-time service representatives stationed in Hungary, Romania, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Tadjikistan.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2007. All rights reserved.