4 US citizens booked for selling dinosaur bones to China
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New York: Authorities in the US charged four people for purchasing and selling ‘paleontological resources’ including dinosaur bones, NBC News reported.
A statement from the US Attorney's Office for the District of Utah said the accused violated the Paleontological Resources Preservation and committed multiple felonies.
Two of the accused, Vint Wade and Donna Wade, aged 65 and 67, lived in Utah and others Steven Willing, 67 and Jordan Willing, 40, are from Los Angeles and Oregon, according to the report.
They reportedly exported to China the ancient fossilized remains worth over $ 1 million.
‘A federal grand jury in Salt Lake City returned a 13-count indictment charging four people for allegedly purchasing and selling over $1M in paleontological resources. The dollar amount represents 150,000 pounds of paleontological resources, including dinosaur bones, illegally removed from federal and state lands in southeastern Utah,’ the US Attorney's Office for the District of Utah was quoted as stating.
The paleontological resources, according to the Paleontological Resources Preservation Act, are ‘ fossilized remains, traces, or imprints of organisms, preserved in or on the earth’s crust, that have paleontological interest and provide information about the history of life on earth’.
The four people were accused of purchasing, relocating and exporting dinosaur bones from federal territory for five years between March 2018 and March 2023, according to the report.
They also face charges for ‘knowingly hiding and keeping stolen property belonging to the United States’.
It is reported that the accused Wades collected the paleontological materials to ‘sell them to national merchants and at gem and mineral exhibitions’, according to NDTV.
The Wades also sold the ancient remains to Jordan and Steven Willing.
The Willings are accused of mislabeling the dinosaur bones for both evading federal officers and lowering their value before exporting them to China via their business JMW Sales Inc.
"By removing and processing these dinosaur bones to make consumer products for profit, tens of thousands of pounds of dinosaur bones have lost virtually all scientific value, leaving future generations unable to experience the science and wonder of these bones on Federal land," US Attorney Trina A. Higgins was quoted as stating.