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A28 u.s. news
Diabierna 29 OctOber 2021

U.S. returns antiquities to India in stolen art investigation

nied the allegations. Wiener sold looted items to major
museums in Australia and Singapore,
The case “serves as a potent remind- they said.
er that individuals who maraud sa-
cred temples in pursuit of individual In June, the district attorney’s office
profit are committing crimes not only returned more than two dozen arti-
against a country’s heritage but also facts worth $3.8 million to Cambodia
its present and future,” District At- as part of the investigation. Another
torney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a state- 33 objects were sent back to Afghani-
ment. stan in April.

Authorities say Kapoor — jailed in In- Court papers filed in New York says
dia and facing charges there pending Kapoor went to extraordinary lengths
a U.S. extradition request — used his to acquire the artifacts, many of them
Arts of the Past gallery in New York statues of Hindu deities, and then fal-
to traffic looted treasures from India sified their provenance with forged
and various countries in Southeast documents. They say Kapoor trav-
Asia. The investigation has resulted eled the world seeking out antiquities
in the recovery of 2,500 artifacts val- that had been looted from temples,
(AP) — U.S. authorities returned million, authorities said. ued at $143 million and convictions homes and archaeological sites. Some
about 250 antiquities to India on of six Kapoor co-conspirators, Vance of the artifacts were recovered from
Thursday in a long-running in- The ceremony stems from a sprawl- said. Kapoor’s storage units in New York.
vestigation of a stolen art scheme. ing probe by the Manhattan district
attorney’s office and U.S. Immigra- The Shiva Nataraja bronze was sold Kapoor had the items cleansed and
The items, worth an estimated $15 tion and Customs Enforcement. The by the mother of Nancy Wiener, a repaired to remove any damage from
million, were handed over during a investigation has focused on tens of gallery operator who pleaded guilty illegal excavation, and then illegally
ceremony at the Indian Consulate in thousands of antiquities allegedly in the case this month to charges of exported them to the United States
New York City. The centerpiece is a smuggled into the United States by conspiracy and possession of sto- from their countries of origin, ac-
bronze Shiva Nataraja valued at $4 dealer Subhash Kapoor, who has de- len property, authorities said. Nancy cording to U.S. prosecutors.

Neo-Nazi group member sentenced to 9 years in prison

(AP) — A neo-Nazi group among friends,” the judge Mathews fled Canada af- his homeland and just wants In January 2020, authori-
member was sentenced on said. ter the Winnipeg Free Press to return to Canada, quoting ties in Georgia and Wiscon-
Thursday to nine years in published an article by an un- the song “Home” by Cana- sin arrested four other men
prison in a case that high- Mathews, 29, said he isn’t a dercover reporter who met dian singer Michael Bublé. linked to The Base. More
lighted a broader federal “mean person” and regrets him under the guise of join- than a dozen people linked
crackdown on far-right befriending “the wrong peo- ing The Base. After cross- Prosecutors recommended to Atomwaffen or an off-
extremists. ple.” ing the border into the U.S., 25-year prison sentences for shoot called Feuerkrieg Divi-
Mathews lived at a Georgia both men. The court’s pro- sion have been charged with
FBI agents arrested former “I got involved with people property where group mem- bation office calculated a crimes in federal court since
Canadian Armed Forces re- who were extreme, very ex- bers held military-style train- sentencing guidelines range the group’s formation in
servist Patrik Jordan Mathews treme, and hateful to the ing camps. of 33 to 41 months imprison- 2016.
and two other members of a point of action,” he told the ment in both cases. Lemley’s
group called The Base four judge. “He was intent on violence. lawyer is seeking a sentence Mathews and Lemley pleaded
days before a pro-gun rally in He was intent on murder,” within those guidelines, guilty to charges including il-
Virginia in January 2020. Sur- Mathews and Lemley, a said Assistant U.S. Attorney while Mathews’ attorney was legally transporting a firearm
veillance equipment installed 35-year-old U.S. Army vet- Thomas Windom. seeking a prison sentence of and obstruction of justice, for
in their Delaware apartment eran who also is scheduled 33 months. destroying cellphones when
captured Mathews and fellow to be sentenced on Thursday, Defense attorneys said the FBI agents raided their apart-
Base member Brian Mark pleaded guilty in June to gun men never developed any The Base and another white ment. They have remained in
Lemley Jr. discussing an at- charges in Maryland. They specific plans for violence. supremacist group called custody since their arrests.
tack at the rally at Virginia’s weren’t charged with any vi- And they argued that an un- Atomwaffen Division have
Capitol in Richmond. olent crimes, but prosecutors dercover FBI agent who vis- been leading proponents of The third co-defendant, Wil-
called them domestic terror- ited the Delaware apartment “accelerationism,” a fringe liam Garfield Bilbrough IV,
The judge who sentenced ists. tried to pressure the two philosophy that advocates us- was sentenced to five years
Mathews to prison concluded “damaged military veterans” ing mass violence to hasten in prison after pleading guilty
that he and Lemley intended The closed-circuit television into developing a plan for society’s collapse. A string of in December to helping
to engage in terrorist activity. camera and microphone in violence at the Virginia rally. arrests dealt crippling blows Mathews illegally enter the
U.S. District Judge Theodore their apartment also captured to both groups. U.S. from Canada in 2019.
Chuang’s decision to apply a Mathews and Lemley talk During the recorded conver-
“terrorism enhancement” to about breaking racist mass sations, Mathews and Lemley
their sentences significantly killer Dylann Roof out of only made “generally fleeting
increased their recommend- prison where he is on death references to imaginary sce-
ed prison terms under federal row, assassinating a Virginia narios without any serious
guidelines. lawmaker, destroying rail exploration about particular
lines and power lines, derail- targets or planning opera-
Chuang said recorded con- ing trains and poisoning wa- tions,” Mathews’ attorneys
versations between Mathews ter supplies, prosecutors said. wrote in a court filing.
and Lemley captured the
“virulence” and “passion” in “We’ll give them bad guys. “I really and truly believe Pat
their willingness to kill peo- We will give them white su- would never hurt anyone,”
ple and bring down the U.S. premacist terrorists, if that’s said Glen Mathews, Patrik’s
government. what they want,” Mathews father.
said on a video that he re-
“The court rejects the no- corded in November 2019. Patrik Mathews told the
tion that this was merely talk judge that he regrets leaving