[meteorite-list] Dino Egg Smuggling

[star-bits at comcast.net]

<Is this the same smuggler that was in the news shortly after the Tuscan 
show?>

     No, this article was about a different person, Tom Kapitany from Australia.   Tom also sells a few meteorites, but meteorites are significantly less than 1% of his business.   I asked him about export permits for meteorites once and he said he always got the permits.   Meteorites too insignificant to risk his whole business over.   When I went to Australia in Aug 2004 and searched the mundrabilla strewn field I mailed him what I found and he added them to one of his permits and exported them for me.   

     I know nothing about his mineral and fossil business, but I'd say the government got what it wanted, publicity.   If he was truly guilty of the serious crime of smuggling fossils, charging him with a misdemeanor and fining him $27k (inconvenient, but small compared to his business) seems like a minor slap on the hand.   


--
Eric Olson
ELKK Meteorites
http://www.star-bits.com