COLUMBUS – A man from Georgia has been ordered by a federal judge in Columbus to pay the largest fine in history for violating U.S. wildlife laws.
Benjamin Chason pleaded guilty to violating the Lacey Act of 1900 and sentenced to pay $1.6 million in fines and restitution in U.S. District Court for the three charges related to the illegal trafficking of white-tailed deer between Ohio and Florida and Georgia, according to a spokesperson for the office of U.S. attorney Carter Stewart.
According to court documents, Chason, 61, and co-conspirators Donald Wainwright, Sr., and Donald Wainwright, Jr., were involved in illegally shipping deer to Florida from Ohio and attempting to ship deer to Georgia from Ohio.
The deer herds involved with these shipments were not certified to be free from chronic wasting disease, tuberculosis, and brucellosis, as required by federal law
Of the $1.6 million, Stewart’s office says $600,000 is to be paid into the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Wildlife Habitat Fund, $200,000 to the Federal Endangered Species and Wildlife Diversity Fund, $400,000 to Columbus and Franklin County Metro Parks and $100,000 to the ODNR Division of Wildlife Turn in a Poacher program.
The elder Wainwright owned hunting preserves in Logan County and Live Oak, Fla.; the younger Wainwright was part-time resident and operator of the site in Ohio, where Chason was part-owner. He also owned an extensive high-fenced property containing white-tailed deer in Climax, Ga.