Local Gallery Owner Stuck in Federal Fossil Law Violation

Once owner of a Tyrannosaurus skull, Rick Rolator from Eagle holds no right of this fossil as the federal fossil policy has changed from the time he bought it.

Rick owns a local gallery and bought this fossil from a Chinese broker and did surely not break any law. However, the time is different now and once innocent Rick now faces the conspiracy charges. Tyrannosaurus skull owned by him will also be sent to Mongolia.

While representing Rick in the court, his lawyer Pat Crank said that Rick honestly dealt with a genuine fossil exporter to purchase the fossils and he is just swept up in the violation charges.

"It's unfortunate that there are literally thousands of these things out there, and for years, no one regulated the importation or the sale of any of these fossils. Now all of a sudden the rules have changed", said Crank.

In addition he mentioned that it's very recent when Chinese and Mongolian governments decided not to export the fossils and contacted the U.S. government and purchasing fossils became an illegitimate action.

The thought of putting a stop to the fossil exports was triggered when Eric Prokopi wanted to auction a Tyrannosaurus Bataar skeleton in New York in May 2012. That's when the custom agents in the U.S. took control of that skeleton and sent it back to Mongolia.

Crank emphasized that Rick thought he bought the fossils from a legal exporter and there was nothing wrong about it.

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