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Ex-owners of monkey business plead guilty to false permits 

August 19, 2004

BY NATASHA KORECKI Staff Reporter 

The former owners of a Virginia company accused of importing Indonesian 
monkeys into
Chicago without proper permits pleaded guilty to the federal charges 
Wednesday. 

Labs of Virginia Inc. had four of its shipments come through O'Hare Airport 
with permits
that falsely said they contained captive-bred monkeys. But the company later 
admitted the
shipments included a mix of wild-caught and captive-bred monkeys, Assistant 
U.S. Attorney
Diane MacArthur said.

While the monkeys were not on the endangered list, their populations are the 
subject of
concern the export was being controlled and monitored, MacArthur said. 

"The permits represented they all were captive-bred, but in fact, they were 
wild caught
in the jungles of Indonesia," MacArthur said. 

The company breeds, sells and maintains the monkeys for use in medical 
research.
According to the plea agreement released Wednesday, the company in 1997 
accepted four
shipments of 1,312 macaques, or "crab-eating" monkeys from the Inquatex 
colony in
Indonesia. The colony had macaques that were caught in the wild, according to 
the
agreement. 

The company has since switched owners, who are not accused of wrongdoing. 
Prosecutors are
recommending a $500,000 fine and that the former owners forfeit another 
$64,675. 

Prosecutors plan to drop charges against Labs CEO Charles Stern and board 
member William
Henley and president David Taub -- if a judge agrees -- who were charged for 
accepting
the shipments in one count of an indictment. The charge will be dropped in 
part because
prosecutors would have had to prove they violated an Indonesian-based law, 
MacArthur
said. 

Prosecutors are not seeking jail time in the case. 



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