Three Alaskans were sentenced in federal court Tuesday for illegally selling hundreds of pounds of walrus ivory as well as polar bear hides over a 10-month period.
Glennallen resident Jesse Leboeuf, 47, received a nine-year prison sentence while his companion, Loretta Sternbach, 52, got 3 1/2 years. Richard Weshenfelder, 50, of Anchorage, will serve a three-year probation during which he cannot hunt or do any guiding.
The trio purchased marine mammal parts in Savoonga on St. Lawrence Island and brought them to Glennallen. From there, they were illegally sold to buyers who were not Alaska Natives in Colorado, Alaska and other states. Leboeuf and Sternbach paid the Savoonga-based sellers, who were not named in the investigation, cash along with firearms, ammunition, marijuana, cigarettes and snow machines.
Last July and August, Leboeuf and Sternbach purchased more than 500 pounds of walrus tusks during two trips to Savoonga. Leboeuf made two other trips to St. Lawrence without Sternbach, the last of which came in March.
Weshenfelder was the trio's marketer, contacting walrus tusk buyers on the Internet, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. Then Leboeuf, who is not Alaska Native, negotiated the sales and Sternbach, who is Native, wrote and signed a false "gift" letter to the buyers to make it appear as though the tusks were legally obtained.
Between September 2010 and March, the trio sold 230 pounds of walrus tusks worth $22,000 to a Colorado buyer, according to the indictment, and two polar bear hides for $2,700. Walrus tusks can weigh up to 12 pounds and are found on both sexes.
All three pleaded guilty. It is a violation of federal law for anyone other than Alaska Natives to buy or sell parts from protected animals. Natives are permitted to make art from tusks but must make alterations to them before they can be sold to non-Natives, according to U.S Fish and Wildlife Service rules.
The Interior Department lists polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Pacific walrus are neither listed as endangered nor threatened. This February, however, the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service said the walrus deserved some protection, but relegated the 2-ton mammal to a candidate list of animals awaiting listing because of other species were ahead of it on the agency's priority list. No recent population counts exist, but a 1990 census estimated the Pacific walrus population at 200,000.
"It is important to protect Alaska's resources," U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler said in a statement announcing the sentences.
Leboeuf, a convicted felon, owned at least 25 firearms, according to the indictment. A search warrant executed April 26 found 19 firearms at the Leboeuf-Sternbach home in Glennallen as well as 30 marijuana plants, 93 walrus tusks and migratory bird parts.
Leboeuf and Sternbach also illegally possessed three machine guns, including one with a silencer, the indictment said. None were registered, as required by law. In February, the couple sold an undercover agent a fully automatic machine gun with a silencer and were in negotiations to sell another.