I guess I know as much about all this as anyone and I can tell you that George (nor Manuel) had anything to do with Kovachii...And believe you me I know plenty about that too...To tell the truth George was screwed all the way down the line. SOMEONE sent him an Email offering Kovachii..Carnivore...the Patriot Act snoop on the internet..caught the name and used a partial piece of what they got to get a search warrant..never showing the last page where by George turned down the offer (As did a lot of us) They searched his house and took away his computer and ten boxes of orders etc. From that they found incriminating info as to changing plant names to get through the Ag insp. The bit about Florida was just incidental...Houston is hell no matter what...Manuel skipped using names to get out on bail..None of them was guilty (at least then) of anything..but he needed to be sprung to flee. George then was left hanging..The hope was to reduce charges to enable him to get a light sentence or probation..which SHOULD have been indicated...The judge was a hanging judge..all because of other things...I will not go into that..I believe Kovach got off with little or nothing to hurt him..So go figure..I have not yet heard as to a retrial..but that too is indicated..the thing is out of hand..People who have committed manslaughter have gotten lighter sentences...In my mind, though, this goes back to Carnivore and the Patriot Act...plus the conniving with the email to get the search papers under bogus facts...If you had half the paper trails that I have kept on this type of actions against us Orchid folk, you would agree...The CITES act..as written, is a farce and hurting a lot of people for no good reason...And it is enforced differently at every turn...I have enough stuff piled up to make Eric Hanson a terrific book...George made a mistake..no doubt of it..I would not thought it of him..but the penalty is out of line..I saw all the charges..many of them trumped up and exaggerated to a huge degree..I figure the judge just would not really go over all of it impartially...If he had it would have been a fine...Bill Bergstrom
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