BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) – A western New York antiques dealer convicted of trafficking in elephant tusks and other prohibited wildlife has been fined $30,000 in federal court.
The U.S. attorney’s office says 78-year-old Ferdinand Krizan of Franklinville was sentenced Thursday in Buffalo for illegally buying and selling tusks.
The owner of Fred’s Antiques in Cattaraugus (kat-uh-RAW’-gus) County bought two elephant tusks from a Canadian auction house in 2013 and illegally brought them into the U.S. via the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara Falls. Prosecutors say he later sold the tusks and four others to a buyer in Massachusetts for $50,000.
In all, Krizan bought and sold tusks and ivory carvings worth nearly $142,000.
Officials say as part of Krizan’s plea he’ll also abandon about 100 pieces of elephant ivory carvings.