A high-profile monkey-smuggling case that led to a stunning courtroom loss for U.S. prosecutors is now the target of a House committee investigation.
Three months after a Florida jury acquitted a Cambodian environmental official of wildlife smuggling charges, Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee on Thursday kicked off their own probe by blasting questions at the Fish and Wildlife Service.
“The behaviors of Service employees and contractors during the service’s internal investigation raise serious concerns regarding waste, fraud, and abuse of taxpayer funds,” committee Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) wrote.
Westerman and Gosar home in on the service’s use of a paid informant, Francis Yeung, and the agency’s alleged decision to forgo the typical processes of investigating illegal animal smuggling.
