The bataar skull was imported through an intermediary via Japan by self-described commercial paleontologist Eric Prokopi, who then put it up at auction at Chait in 2007, according to Prokopi’s attorney Georges Lederman.
Prokopi pleaded guilty in 2012 to engaging in a scheme to illegally import numerous dinosaur fossils, including one count of conspiracy, one count of false statements on entry of goods and one count of interstate and foreign transportation of goods converted and taken by fraud, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
As part of his plea agreement, Prokopi agreed to the forfeiture of a nearly complete Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton (the First bataar), which sold at auction in 2010 for over $1 million, as well as a second nearly complete Tyrannosaurus bataar skeleton, a Saurolophus skeleton, and an Oviraptor skeleton, according to the Justice Department.
In July 2014, Prokopi was sentenced to three months in prison.
“Mongolian law at the time was very inconsistent and confusing at the time. It has since been changed,” Lederman told ABC News.
Lederman said that when Prokopi put the fossil up for auction, he believed it to have been legally imported. Prokopi has since moved on and “is leading a law-abiding life,” Lederman said.
Herskowitz said he believed Prokopi was in the business because he had a true passion for paleontology.
“Just because he was accused of something once, doesn’t mean that everything he’s done was illegal,” said Herskowitz of Prokopi.
Article Appeared @http://abcnews.go.com/US/dinosaur-skull-purchased-nicolas-cage-returned-mongolia/story?id=35911127