06 July, 2017
The craft store chain imported the items into the US after deciding in 2009 to start collecting "a variety of historical Bibles and other artifacts".
Among other signs, "Hobby Lobby received conflicting information where the Artifacts had been stored prior to the inspection" in the United Arab Emirates.
In a statement, Green acknowledged the company had made "regrettable mistakes", adding "We should have exercised more oversight and carefully questioned how the acquisitions were handled".
Hobby Lobby "consented to the forfeiture of the artifacts" and "an additional sum of $3 million", the office said, and agreed to make internal changes including personnel training, hiring outside counsel and submitting "quarterly reports to the government on any cultural property acquisitions for the next eighteen months".
"In executing the stipulation of settlement, Hobby Lobby has accepted responsibility for its past conduct and agreed to take steps to remedy the deficiencies that resulted in its unlawful importation of the Artifacts", the Justice Department said. "Hobby Lobby representatives had not met or communicated with the dealer who purportedly owned the artifacts, nor did they pay him for the artifacts".
Instead, on the instructions of a second dealer, Hobby Lobby wired payments to seven separate personal bank accounts, the prosecutors said.
Shipments were sent to three different locations in the USA, with one to three arriving at a time.
Five of the shipments were intercepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in 2011. All of the packages had labels falsely identifying their country of origin as Turkey, prosecutors said.
"American collectors and importers must ensure compliance with laws and regulations that require truthful declarations to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, so that Customs officers are able to scrutinize cultural property crossing our borders and prevent the inappropriate entry of such property", Acting United States Attorney Rohde said in a statement. That's when the Supreme Court ruled that, because the family that owned the chain felt so strongly that certain contraceptives violated Christian principles, it should be permitted to shun the Affordable Care Act's mandate that all health insurance plans provide birth control without deductibles or co-pays.
The company is behind a project to build the Museum of the Bible, which will reportedly open in Washington later this year. Its collection will include Bibles in more than 2,000 language, a walk-through replica of first-century Nazareth and a host of other artifacts. "Our entire team is committed to the highest standards for investigating and acquiring these items".
