20 THE QUEENS COURIER • JULY 13, 2017 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
LIC gallery busted for smuggling elephant ivory sculptures
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com/@AngelaMatua
A Long Island City art gallery illegally
sold a sculpture made with elephant
ivory, even though the sale of the material
was banned by Governor Andrew Cuomo
in 2014.
According to Queens District Attorney
Richard A. Brown, Ro Gallery at 47-15 36th
St. sold a ballerina sculpture made of elephant
Photo courtesy of Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown
Astoria nonprofi t allegedly harassing tenants to get them to leave
BY ANGELA MATUA
amatua@qns.com / @AngelaMatua
A Christian nonprofi t that owns an
apartment building in Astoria is allegedly
using intimidation tactics to kick out
its tenants in order to turn the place into
a homeless shelter.
New York School of Urban Ministry
(NYSUM), which owns a 39-unit building
at 31-10 47th St., sent a letter to its
tenants last November warning them that
they had to leave the building within
a month. Th e organization had worked
out a deal with a homeless shelter provider
and decided to kick out low-income
adults from the building since owners
claimed NYSUM was facing fi nancial
hardship.
Aft er a rally organized by local elected
offi cials to pressure the landlord to change
his mind, Legal Aid Society stepped in
fi led a lawsuit on behalf of the tenants.
According to Sateesh Nori, Attorneyin
Charge at the Legal Aid Society, eight
tenants have moved out of the building
since then and the landlord, Pastor Peter
DeArruda, is trying to intimidate the
remaining tenants to leave.
“He has been personally coming to the
building and talking to people in the common
area and telling people that they’re
going have to leave and off ering people a
free van if they need help with their stuff
so they can leave right away,” Nori said.
Tenants alerted Nori to the harassment
about a month ago. Th ough they have a
pending court date on July 17, Nori said
Legal Aid Society is contemplating asking
the judge to restrain the organization
from harassing tenants.
Th e apartment building houses people
who are referred by clergy and who are
encouraged to do charitable work while
they live there. Each tenant lives in a studio
with communal living and kitchen
spaces. Rent for the rooms start at $425
and tenants have said that they cannot
aff ord market-rate apartments if they are
kicked out.
Nori said most of the tenants are missionaries
and are upset that a religious
organization would resort to threatening
them.
“Th ey’re extremely nervous. People are
saying they can’t sleep at night, that they
are anxious,” he said. “A lot of these tenants
feel betrayed. Th ey feel like this is not
something that a religious group should
be doing and that they should be looking
out for each other.”
Nori is confi dent that tenants have a
strong argument against NYSUM and
that they will ultimately prevail in the
end. But he said they were hoping to have
a fair fi ght, which has not been the case
so far.
“We are very hopeful,” he said. “We
think we have a very strong legal authority
that these tenants have a right to stay
and we were looking forward to a fair
fi ght in court. Th ey’re trying to undercut
the legal case by taking out each one of
our plaintiff s one at a time. If everyone’s
moved out then there is no legal case.”
Ira Clair, the attorney for NYSUM, did
not respond to a request for comment as
of the time this article was published.
ivory to undercover investigators for
more than $2,500 last month. Elephants
are on the endangered species list and the
sale of more than $1,500 worth of products
made from elephant ivory is only allowed by
obtaining a Department of Environmental
Conservation (DEC) permit. Otherwise, the
sale is considered a felony.
On May 30, two DEC undercover investigators
visited the gallery and met with
employee Jamie Villamarin, who showed
them two ballerina sculptures made of
ivory. He told investigators, “Th ese are
ivory, but we don’t list them as such
because you can’t sell ivory.”
Aft er following up to ask about pricing,
the investigators went back to the gallery
on June 14 and met with the owner Robert
Rogal. He sold the piece to them for $2,612
in cash and then proceeded to show them
another piece, which he priced at $3,600.
“I believe it is ivory,” he said. “Th ey don’t
even allow the sale of them ivory.”
Th e investigators had the fi rst item
examined by an expert who confi rmed that
it was made of ivory. On July 6, offi cers
executed a court-ordered search warrant
and found several sculptures made of ivory
and items believed to be made from the
tooth of a sperm whale and crocodile skin.
“Th e arrest of these two individuals
should send a strong message that illegally
selling artifacts made from the ivory
tusks of threatened elephants will not be
tolerated in Queens County,” Brown said.
“Buyers of such items should also be especially
cautious and only buy from licensed
retailers. Otherwise, they may be indirectly
contributing to the extinction of one of
the world’s most magnifi cent animals –
the elephant.”
Jamie Villamarin and Robert Rogal were
charged with violating two DEC laws –
ECL 71-0924-3, which prohibits the sale of
wildlife up to a certain amount, and ECL
11-0535, which prohibits the sale of wildlife
on the endangered or threatened species
list.
Th ey face up to four years in prison if
convicted and are ordered to return to
court on Aug. 29.
Cuomo signed a new law in 2014, banning
the sale of elephant and mammoth
ivory and rhinoceros horns and added
stricter penalties for buyers and sellers who
break the law. Th e law does allow for the
sale of antiques demonstrated to be at least
100 years old and containing less than 20
percent of ivory.
New York City was known to be a
major player in the illegal ivory trade in
the United States before this 2014 law was
passed. Th e United Nations estimates that
organized environmental crimes like the
ivory trade are worth approximately $213
billion annually.
Th e Wildlife Conservation Society estimates
that 96 elephants are killed every day
by poachers for their ivory. Th e 2016 Great
Elephant Census found that there are only
352,000 African savanna elephants still living,
which represents a decline of 30 percent over
the last seven years.
A Long Island City gallery was caught illegally selling a sculpture made of elephant ivory.
Local nonprofi t receives $3,300 check to
support its charitable operations
Candles for Hope, a Long Island based
nonprofi t, was presented a $3,300 check
from Schneps Communications on July 6.
Th e funds were raised at the 2017 Queens
Excellence in Real Estate Awards on June
14 at Flushing’s Terrace on the Park.
Established this year, the organization’s
mission is to provide birthday
parties and gift s to displaced and homeless
children within the community.
Th e funding will be used to establish a
Queens chapter.
Learn more by visiting their website at
CandlesForHope.org.