Re: [meteorite-list] stolen lunar meteorites

[LabNEMS]

John S./ List Members:

I've been retained by the OIG and USAG on this case and am
currently under a US Federal Subpoena to appear. We did the Appraisal
on the samples contained within the safe stolen from JSC.

(Sorry, OIG is the US Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General,
USAG is the US Attorney General's Office, and JSC is Johnson Space Center
in Texas)

I'm restricted as to what I can say on the value and how we did it but was told
that the Defense claims that these are "just a bunch of rocks".

To say that they're "just a bunch of rocks" is certainly minimizing here.

The material contained in that safe was extraordinary. The word "unique", which
expresses an absolute, fails to adequately describe the contents.

I agree with Geoff C. in that US Collectors understand the legality of US citizens owning
Apollo Return Samples and perhaps the people who had the contents also knew this
as they were attempting to sell the material through foreign buyers.

A lot of time has been put into this case as there is no precedent here. A lot
of work has been put into the evaluation of this material. During the appraisal
process I received the council of several fine members of our community. One
member, Greg R. was very helpful in crystallizing my thoughts in the final
appraisal and I publically thank him for his input (for those who don't know Greg
he's a recently retired Federal Anti-Terrorist guy).

As all of you know, all appraisals are an opinion of value. A good appraisal is one
that backs the resultant opinion with facts and records. In some cases value is not
limited to dollars alone. To this end we have tried to be as thorough as possible.

It is my understanding that guilt has already been established. It is now the
responsibility of the US Attorney General's Office to present all data to
the residing Federal Judge to determine the magnitude of the crime.

Perhaps our List member Eric T. can speak more on the '"mechanics" of the process.

When all is said and done I'll post the appraisal details and proceedings on this list (unless
for some reason I'm prohibited from doing so.)

For my end this has consumed a huge amount of time. What a way to start the new year!
But lucky me, I'll be paid $42.00 a day for my time away. That will get me about 10 grams
of Cape York from Walter B. (minus the case).

Russ Kempton
New England Meteoritical
www.meteorlab.com





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