National News
02.12.2010
Burchell�s smuggling takes new turn
By: JANA-MARI SMITH

THE ILLEGAL smuggling of hunting trophies from Namibia into South Africa forms part of a major lawsuit filed this week in the United States against Barry Burchell and Cabela�s Outdoor Adventures (COA).
Scott Anglin, a former business partner of Burchell filed a civil action for damages to the amount of almost N$25 million against Burchell and COA this week.

Anglin accuses Burchell, and in some cases COA, of breaking hunting, conservation and export-import laws of Namibia, South Africa and the United States.

Anglin states that Burchell, who owns Frontier Safaris, and COA have for the past eight years at least �knowingly, continuously and regularly� violated �the game regulatory laws of the two host countries, South Africa and Namibia ...�.

He accuses Burchell of, amongst other things, illegally transporting wildlife trophies, including trophies of �protected or endangered� species, from Namibia into South Africa.

Anglin himself is embroiled in a N$12 million defamation lawsuit which was filed in South Africa by Burchell, but alleges in the court documents filed this week that Burchell and COA conspired together to bring the lawsuit against him in an attempt to sidetrack the investigations against Burchell and COA.

Anglin claims that the �fraudulent, baseless lawsuit in South Africa� was one of the methods Burchell and COA cooked up to silence him.

Another claim is that Frontier Safaris transported trophies or animal parts from SA to the US as �gifts or curios rather than animal trophy materials�.

Burchell�s hunting operations are being investigated jointly by the US Fish and Wildlife authorities, Interpol and SA authorities. Although Namibian authorities last week denied any involvement, a source said this week that the Namibian authorities are providing assistance.

Anglin says he suspects the international probe into Burchell�s activities is focused on �the legality or illegality of the hunting and the transportation of animals and trophies, including export and import between countries�.

Anglin filed his civil action on Monday under the provisions of the United States �Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organisations Act (RICO)�.

The court documents allege numerous �unlawful activities and also some unethical practices including human rights abuses by Burchell� during the past eight years, from 2002 until the early part of 2010.

Anglin says that he informed COA in 2004 and 2005 of his suspicions �about several illegal and unethical business practices of Barry G. Burchell, with regard to how he operated his hunting business providing safari hunting trips and related services�.

According to Anglin, when he discussed the issues with COA he did not yet know that Burchell and COA �were closely tied and interdependent in this enterprise�s business�.

Anglin says that he informed COA of �Burchell�s abuses of employees, illegal collection of Value Added Taxes (VAT) from the customers, extortion or blackmail efforts by Burchell ... and routine breaches of the game laws of the African countries where the hunts took place�. According to Anglin, �COA learned or was told repeatedly that Burchell was not operating legally, from 2005 or earlier, but took no corrective action�.

COA allegedly �finally suspended dealings with Burchell just this last spring, 2010, when the investigations became too obviously focused and dangerous,� Anglin states.

According to Anglin, his attempt to �blow the whistle� on Burchell�s abuse of Cabela�s hunting clients backfired when COA immediately informed Burchell of the allegations.

The court documents state that �COA and Burchell immediately conferred, collaborated and conspired to try to intimidate him to stop his disclosures ...�, including the filing of a defamation lawsuit against Anglin.

One of the main points in the defamation suit, is the claim by Burchell that COA stopped doing business with him from 2005 until 2007 as a result of Anglin�s accusation. However, in September 2010, Gregg Severinson, the Chief Operations Officer of COA testified that �Burchell in claiming a two year shut off of business from COA had lied, and if under oath that it was perjury�.

Anglin in addition accuses COA of collaboration with Burchell and assisting Burchell �in collecting taxes that were never owed or properly taxable�.

According to statements, including those from Burchell�s ex-wife, Anglin says that �Burchell did not turn in to the South African Revenue Service these illegally collected amounts, but rather kept them as added profit.�

Since the international investigation against Burchell kicked off several of Burchell�s customers who hunted in Namibia or South Africa have had their trophies confiscated by US authorities. Anglin speculates that �hundreds more such items are potentially subject or vulnerable to confiscation ...�.

Here is a previous article; the above was a follow up.

National News
29.11.2010
Trophy smuggling probed
By: JANA-MARI SMITH

A MAJOR international investigation led by US authorities, Interpol and South African authorities is continuing into claims of cross-border smuggling of hunting trophies between Namibia and South Africa.
At the centre of the investigation is South African Barry Burchell, who is alleged to own at least two farms in Namibia.

A significant portion of Burchell�s hunting operations allegedly took place in Namibia, where he brings clients to hunt through his company Frontier Safaris.

According to a source at the South African Department of Economic Affairs and Environmental Affairs (Dedea), an independent investigation has been launched into the manner in which Burchell transported clients� trophies, in particular animal skins, from Namibia into South Africa and then into the US. The Dedea official confirmed that the South African investigators are assisting Interpol and the US Fish and Wildlife Service in their investigations.

According to several hunters in the US, their trophies were confiscated by the US Fish and Wildlife Service due to incorrect labelling that were allegedly intended to disguise the fact that many of the animals were shot in Namibia and not in SA, as claimed by Burchell.

The Dedea official claimed that the international investigation has been continuing for the past year and is independent of an ongoing N$12 million defamation lawsuit Burchell has brought against a former business partner, Scott Anglin, a Texan.

The Dedea official said the Namibian authorities would be notified once they have completed their investigation.

In Namibia, customs officials and officials at the Ministry of Environment and Tourism have confirmed that they are not investigating charges against Burchell.

The international investigation into Burchell�s dealings was revealed this month during the defamation lawsuit, where testimony from a manager at Cabela�s Outdoor Adventures, a leading booking agent for hunting operators, showed that Burchell�s cross-border dealings had caused concern for some time.

According to investigative reporter Eddie Botha at the SA online newspaper Dispatch Online, Gregg Severinson, head of Cabela�s Outdoor Adventures, said a colleague had informed him that he was �very nervous about how Frontier Safaris is exporting trophies�.

He said Severinson was informed that there were concerns that Burchell did not follow US Fish and Wildlife regulations. The adventure company was apparently concerned that Burchell was shipping clients� trophies in bulk across the Namibian border into South Africa, �not under hunters� names ... then shipping it as gifts or hunted in the Republic of SA�.

Severinson testified that Cabela�s was alerted to the investigation into Burchell in late 2009, after customers complained about problems with their trophies.

The Daily Dispatch quotes Severinson as saying some trophies were �taking too long and [some] trophies [were] without correct documentation ...�.

Cabela�s claims it severed all ties with Burchell when the US authorities began to confiscate clients� trophies.

According to court documents filed at the Grahamstown Court, Anglin informed Cabela�s that Burchell was �guilty of criminal activities�, �notoriously abusive to his own employees�, �unethical� in his hunting practices and did not pay his bills.

A Namibian hunter said several of Burchell�s US clients had their trophies confiscated during the past year by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, which began investigating the claims against Burchell.

The source said Burchell�s shipping of trophies came under suspicion when animals he claimed were hunted on his farm in SA were in fact hunted in Namibia.

He added that the investigation into Burchell, and the fact that authorities in the US have confiscated trophies from hunters, are �very bad for Namibia�s reputation as a hunting destination.�

Burchell is no longer a member of NAPHA, after he stopped paying his membership fees.

This is getting real ugly and will only get worse for Burchell and Cabela's Outdoor Adventures!

I suspect some of the problem/confusion with this is how lax namibia is on so much of the hunting industry. Many people hunt in namibia without a PH on a private farm with the landowner no license no outfitter, no dip pack. Trophies salted put in a box or sack and sent home with the sportsman.
Much of this is not by the letter of the law, but because its been done this way for decades it "seems" like its all okay. Namibia just does not seem to care at all about following any formal or structured process. So when permits are needed they get them on a log book from RSA. Ive known this happens for years now. It seems yet again namibia does not have an interest in this case. Even though much of the case is based in namibia!

Herters was shut down for illegal jungle cock importations for fly tying... Seems Cabela's could be liable for alot of the importation problems...

Yeah, I've been following this story. Barry Burchell is not too far from where I operate.
He runs a top outfit , well apart of all the monkey business, that I dont want to get involved in at all or even comment about.
Hope everything works out for him.
It will be a loss to the game industry if an outfit of his calibre had to dissapear.

JJ,

Perhaps it's just me, but I have to wonder. Is it really necessary for you to constantly put down not only other African countries, but also other regions of the RSA which you do not see as worthy of hunting? Also, when folks post about booking a hunt with someone other than you, you seem to feel the need to chime in to state that you can do it better, cheaper, indigenous species, blah, blah,,,,For crying out loud dude, lighten up. Believe it or not, the African hunting world doesn't revolve around you. I'm sure you're a fine guy to hunt with, as many on the board have posted, but jeez.

Jeff

akjeff....it's just not you

I think people are not looking at the real pitcher here. Pull up the Court Report and read what the case is all about. What most of the reporters are putting in there stores are not the big pitcher of the case. It is about Cabelas being told about hunters being taken for a long time and that the outfitter they were doing it. It is all so about Burchell falsified permits and Cabelas not only knowing about it , but all so helping him with it. It is the hunters that have all ready have had the stuff taken a way that know more about this then we all know. As you all see Cabelas has made no commit on this and well try to cover it up like most large Co's do . Let's all pull up the name Burchell and see how many times it comes up with bad hits. Again with people like Cabelas helping outlaw outfitters like Burchell it makes one wonder, how many more they are helping break the hunting LAW's. GOD HELP US GET AWAY FROM PEOPLE LIKE CABELAS !!!

welcome to the campfire, Hunter50.

Hack ain't just a clever name. He's a [bleep] tool of the highest magnitude. I'd sooner hunt with Charlie Manson

I'm afraid that Cabela's is toast. If the feds shut down Herter's over some chicken feathers, think what they will do to Cabela's over this.

Not sure what this means to Cabela's but it wouldn't hurt to see Gregg Severinson get taken down a notch.

BS.
Namibia is actually a lot stricter than RSA when considering hunting, not only trophy hunting, but also meat hunting, but because it is a more remote area, and the borders are pretty diffuse, (on both sides, remember, they have to take the illigal stuff INTO your beloved RSA....), people have been smuggling a lot of illigally hunted trophies over that borders for years. A few years back, Eugene Hartung from MET in Keetmanshoop, put a seroius dent into people taking back trophies of animals killed on a meat permit, but I am sure it still happens even after this allegations toiwards Burchell/ Cabellas. As a matter of interest, I crossed that border about a week ago, and MET, Vetenary services and Customs all checked my hunting truck on the Namibia side, no one checked it on the RSA side...

Wonder if this will affect the entire Cabelas org., or just the travel dept.?


maddog

I don't think it means anything to the company as a whole. But this isn't the first problem with their travel dept. They screwed the pooch on a 2008 Arizona application deal by waiting to the last minute to deliver their applications and they came late and were tossed. Cost all involved their preference points.

I posted this as in 2007 I met 2 guy's from Oklahoma in the airport in Windhoek who bought a Cabelas package; and were not too happy. They did shoot most of their package but the animal quality was very poor; nothing but culls in my opinion. Now it was late season, but that was no excuse just to shoot dinks from a water hole.

But their bitch was not about trophy quality. They had been presented a bill by the outfitter for extras that they would have thought would be included with a package price. Trophy prep(skinning and salt), extra VAT, fuel for the truck; They had to wire $$$ from home to pay it.

Now there are two sides to every story but I'll let you guess the name of the company involved......

Who is the real pitcher?

Or, did you mean picture?

Barry Burchell is one of the worest outfitters in South Africa, why do you think all of his past PH's turn him in and told ever thing that this guy has done to the USFW. You think at the end of the day they were going to go to jail a long with the guy's from Cabelas . Come on people Cabelas needs to be given LARGE Fines and maybe some Jail time all so with this Burchell guy. I read the law suit and it is a long one . If Cabelas help this guy cheat the hunters they sent him, then they need to pay the hunters back . And if the hunters loose there trophys . Then Cabelas should be made to pay for them all so. I will be watching the out come of this tell the end. Good luck to the guy taking this on.

Is English a second language?

Spot on. Nam is definately more strict than RSA, without a doubt.

Another vote for Namibia. In my (limited) hunting experience in both countries, I found Nam to give much more attention to the small details, especially concerning collection & treatment of trophies. Namibia was less expensive as well.......

From what I 've seen of some the guides they use in Alaska I would be very cautious in using Cabelas.I'm sure they use some good ones but I know they use some bad ones.

Reading all this just get's one upset. And here we have up here in Canada , Cabelas buying S.I.R. , what a bad thing for us Canuck's, i have really noticed a difference for the worst since they have taken over. I just hope they don't get to involved with our hunting resource up here. Just my 2 cts. worth.

All i can say is: Greed,Greed, Greed.

They already are.