A Ridgefield man pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma to violating the Lacey Act — a conservation law — by trafficking in sperm whale ivory, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office Western District of Washington.
Tim Davis, 55, admitted to participating in at least 74 transactions involving the purchase and sale of whale, elephant and walrus ivory between May 2006 and June 2015, Seattle U.S. Attorney Annette Hayes announced Friday. The Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act prohibit unlawful purchases and sales of these products.
Davis will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert J. Bryan on July 13, the news release states.
According to the plea agreement, Davis posted advertisements online offering to purchase and sell various ivory products. He sold ivory to buyers outside the U.S., particularly in Asia. To conceal his international transactions, Davis fraudulently labeled the ivory packages, stating they contained “oxbone” products, the news release said.
Davis participated in a serious of ivory transactions between 2012 and 2015 with an undercover U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent. He sold the agent a collection of sperm whale teeth for $2,000 in May 2015, and purchased four walrus tusks from the agent in June 2015, according to the news release.
Under the terms of the plea deal, prosecutors will recommend probation with as much as six months of home detention. Davis will also forfeit his unlawfully acquired ivory products, the news release states.
“The illegal wildlife trade is a $20 billion industry that is rapidly driving elephants and many other animals to extinction. The Service will continue to use every tool at its disposal to fight the trafficking scourge and the shameful individuals who are depriving our planet of these magnificent creatures for their own profit,” Edward Grace, deputy assistant director for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Office of Law Enforcement, said in the news release.
The case was investigated by the Fish and Wildlife Service and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Seth Wilkinson.
