A criminal indictment concerning alleged smuggling of Egyptian antiquities and money laundering, unsealed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, could reverberate through the U.S. museum and collecting communities.
Egyptian art collector Joseph A. Lewis II of Chesterfield County, VA, from whose residence objects were seized on Wednesday, was one of four defendants charged by the U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District, with "conspiring to smuggle Egyptian antiquities into the United States and conspiring to launder money in furtherance of smuggling," according to the U.S. Attorney's press release. The alleged crimes occurred in 2008 and 2009.
The other defendants are antiquities dealers Mousa Khouli, Salem Alshdaifat and Ayman Ramadan.
"This is a ground breaking case for Homeland Security Investigations," according to James Hayes Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), New York. "It is the first time an alleged cultural property network has been dismantled within the United States."
A glowing 2008 profile of Lewis, titled "You Don't Know Joe," discusses the skin-care magnate's museum connections:
He and his wife, Sofi, collect Egyptian antiquities, particularly mummy cases, coffin boards, and afterlife statuary like scarabs. (They've given or loaned several pieces to Atlanta's Michael C. Carlos Museum and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.)
I sent queries (more than two hours ago) to both museums. If I learn more, you'll learn more.
The U.S. Attorney's above-linked press release provides these details about case:
As alleged in the indictment, from October 2008 through November 2009, Lewis purchased a Greco-Roman style Egyptian sarcophagus, a nesting set of three Egyptian sarcophagi, a set of Egyptian funerary boats and Egyptian limestone figures from Khouli, who earlier acquired those items from Alshdaifat and Ramadan.
Each of these antiquities was exported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and smuggled into the United States using a variety of illegal methods intended to avoid detection and scrutiny by U.S. Customs & Border Protection ("Customs"). Specifically, the defendants allegedly made false declarations to Customs concerning the country of origin and value of the antiquities, and provided misleading descriptions of the contents on shipping labels and customs paperwork, such as "antiques," "wood panels" and "wooden painted box."
Most of the smuggled antiquities have been recovered by law enforcement. The innermost sarcophagus of the nesting set was seized during a search of Khouli's residence in September 2009. The middle sarcophagus and most of the outer sarcophagus were seized in November 2009, after they arrived via sea cargo at the Port of Newark, New Jersey.
The Greco-Roman sarcophagus, funerary boats and limestone figures were seized during a search of Lewis's residence on July 13, 2011 [emphasis added]. A civil complaint seeking forfeiture of Egyptian sarcophagi, Iraqi artifacts, cash and other items seized in connection with the government's investigation was also unsealed this morning in Brooklyn federal court.
