The skeleton of predatory dinosaur was put on auction about two years ago. However, it ended it a Manhattan court on June 3 after a smuggler pleaded guilty on charges of smuggling the fossil pieces into the United States.

The dinosaur fossil smuggler was identified as Eric Prokopi, who pleaded guilty on the charges filed against him. Prokopi was sentenced to three months in federal prison after being found guilty of the crime.

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US District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein said before imposing the sentence that Prokopi was not a bad person. However, he has done a clearly bad deed, Judge Hellerstein added. Furthermore, the district judge said that Prokopi’s punishment must serve to discourage those who have been in the smuggling business or those who are planning to enter the black market scene.

Prokopi’s lawyer Georges Lederman said that the man’s family was disappointed with the sentence. This was after Prokopi hoped he could get probation for the charges pressed against him.

Eric Prokopi pleaded guilty to charges filed against him for giving false statements to US customs on December 27, 2012. He transported the dinosaur fossil pieces into the US even as he knew that were illegally taken from Mongolia.

Together, the charges filed against Prokopi have a total of 17 years imprisonment with possible fines. However, Prokopi’s side cited that the accused has cooperated and that the prosecution supported leniency.

Assistant to the US attorney in New York’s Southern District Martin Bell said that they have been pursuing the case on the Tarbosaurus bataar skeleton and have spoken with Prokopi. Bell said that Prokopi has disclosed further information regarding the existence of other dinosaur fossils that were Mongolian property that they have not been aware of.

Investigators have recovered the fossils from Prokopi and his associates and made the necessary arrangements to send all of it back to Mongolia. The fossils found from Prokopi and his English business partner Chris Moore included specimens from Tarbosaurus, which are almost completed while others remained to be fragmented. Other specimens included dinosaur eggs, hadrosaurs fossils, Gallimimus fossils, protoceratops and ankylosaurs fossils.

TagsEric Prokopi, dinosaur fossil smuggle, Tarbosaurus, Mongolia, Martin Bell, US District Court Judge Alvin Hellerstein, Georges Lederman