Hello List, We US citizens all paid dearly for these rocks. We paid
for these rocks with our tax money and can't even see them. So they are
useless to the true owners, US!!!!! Tom
walter branch wrote:
of Cape York from Walter B. (minus the case).
Now, Russ. For you, you know I would throw in the case for free :-)
-Walter
------------------------------------------------
Walter Branch, Ph.D.
322 Stephenson Save., Suite B
Savannah, GA 31405
www.branchmeteorites.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "LabNEMS" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "John Sinclair" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, January 06, 2003 6:32 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] stolen lunar meteorites
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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--
Thanks, Tom
The proudest member of the IMCA # 6168
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