It was just like Noah’s Ark, except everything was dead — and illegal.
A former New York cabby-turned-billionaire landed in hot water when federal officials discovered a sinister menagerie of endangered big-cat skins and elephant tusks aboard his fancy yacht when it docked in Florida.
Real-estate tycoon Tamir Sapir, 61, signed a guilty plea this week by his holding company to charges of attempting to import 29 items in violation of the Endangered Species Act and agreed to pay $150,000 in fines, federal authorities said.
Among the chilling items that were displayed aboard Sapir’s yacht, the Mystere, were barstools upholstered with python and anaconda skins, seven carved elephant tusks, hides of jaguars, tigers and zebras, and a fully stuffed and mounted lion.
“The illegal trade in endangered wildlife robs directly from our future and the futures of our children and our grandchildren,” said Anthony Mangione, of the Miami office of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “People who engage in this type of activity are criminals.”
Other items included a cigarette holder made from python skin, a zebra-skin-lined children’s bed and a cigar box wrapped in elephant hide.
Officers with the US Customs and Border Protection division found the items on Dec. 18, 2007, when they searched the yacht as it was being brought into the country at Port Everglades aboard a cargo ship called the Enterprise from Italy via Spain.
They immediately called in inspectors from the Fish and Wildlife Service, who determined the items were protected under the Endangered Species Act and that Sapir did not possess proper permits for them.
Officials said the items were valued at approximately $85,000.
The yacht is owned by the Cayman Islands-based Ruzial Ltd. — a holding company run by Sapir that existed only as owner of the yacht.
Sapir is a Georgian immigrant who made a fortune in Russian oil that he has also turned into a lucrative New York real-estate empire.
In 2006 he purchased the most expensive townhouse in the city when he closed on the Duke Semans mansion on Fifth Avenue, across from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, for $40 million. He also owns a 12-acre estate in Great Neck, LI, an apartment in Trump Tower and numerous commercial properties throughout the city.
He was once among the world’s 500 richest people, according to Forbes Magazine, but slipped off the list to 522nd in the past year when his fortune dwindled from $1.9 billion to $1.4 billion.
Sapir’s Florida attorney, Sandy Weinberg, said his client was in no way trying to smuggle the remains of endangered species into the country and that they were just “part of the decor” of Sapir’s “home away from home.”
“It was just a failure to have to the proper documentation,” he said. “These are ivory pieces that pre-date the [legal] acts. They are antiques. As far as the skins are concerned, these are skins that were legally purchased and they are old. He wasn’t importing or exporting these items.”