HONOLULU (AP) — The owner of a Hawaii jewelry and gift retail business was sentenced Monday to six months in federal prison for smuggling Alaska ivory to the Philippines, where items were carved into fish hooks then shipped back and
HONOLULU (AP) — The owner of a Hawaii jewelry and gift retail business was sentenced Monday to six months in federal prison for smuggling Alaska ivory to the Philippines, where items were carved into fish hooks then shipped back and passed off as made in Hawaii by local artisans.
Curtis Wilmington pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge in March.
Authorities say Wilmington purchased raw walrus tusks and whale teeth from an undercover agent from Alaska and smuggled black coral from Mexico to Hawaii.
The items have federal protections that require declaration, permitting and licensing for exporting or importing.
U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright also sentenced Wilmington to three years of supervised release and a $40,000 fine.
Seabright sentenced Wilmington’s corporation, Hawaiian Accessories, Inc., to pay a $50,000 fine and to five years of court supervision.
“I feel very remorseful,” Wilmington said, telling the judge he knew what he did was wrong, but didn’t know the consequences.
He “stepped over the
line,” in cutting corners for products he described as “gifts of aloha.”
According to court documents, Wilmington and others in his company removed the “made in the Philippines” labels once the ivory returned to Hawaii as fish hooks.
