Guilty pleas in NYC illegal ivory sale

Two Diamond District jewelry dealers pleaded guilty Thursday to illegally offering elephant ivory worth an estimated $2 million for sale as Manhattan's top prosecutor pledged a crackdown on the black market that fuels poaching of endangered pachyderms.

District Attorney Cy Vance, showing off part of the 1-ton haul of tusks, beads, bracelets and carved figurines that wildlife experts said represented about 25 dead elephants, said local prosecutions supplement federal efforts to combat an alarming rise in poaching.

"Poachers are pushing elephants to the brink of extinction," Vance said. "This is an international problem that requires local solutions. In order to curb the poaching of elephants in Africa and Asia, we need to curb the demand side of the illegal ivory trade right here at home."

Johnson Jung-Chien Lu, 56, of Scarsdale, and his store New York Jewelry Mart were charged in January. His alleged ivory supplier, Mukesh Gupta, 67, and his business Raja Jewels Inc. were charged in June. Ivory items worth $120,000 were seized from Lu, and pieces worth more than $2 million were seized from Gupta, officials said.

Both men and their businesses pleaded guilty to the illegal commercialization of wildlife. Ivory predating the 1970s listing of elephants as endangered can be sold with a permit, but neither business had one. The charges didn't specify if the ivory predated the ban.

They each faced up to 4 years in prison. Under plea agreements, however, Lu and his business agreed to pay $10,000 to the Wildlife Conservation Society for elephant protection programs, and Gupta and his store paid $45,000.

Under the deals, the ivory is forfeited, but neither man serves jail time and the businesses remain open. The district attorney will alert the IRS that payments to the conservation society were part of a criminal plea so they are not tax-deductible, a spokeswoman said.

Monitoring agencies say the 24 tons of ivory seized in 2011 was the highest total since 1989. The percentage of elephants that die due to poaching has risen from 40 percent to 80 percent since 2006, the agencies said. The largest demand comes from China and Japan.