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Customs Officials Get Billionaire & Yacht in Miami

Cab driver-turned-billionaire Tamir Sapir and his yacht were both seized by customs officials last week, in Miami. Tapir Sapir’s $26 million yacht, the Mystère, was reportedly furnished in Versace and then some. According to the Miami Herald, the yacht also included "zebra skins, a jaguar skin rug, Bengal tiger and African lion heads, cigar boxes covered in elephant hide, a reticulated python cigarette holder, and large carved ivory tusks." Thanks to the Endangered Species Act of 1973, it is illegal to "kill, hunt, collect, injure or harass any endangered animals, or to destruct their habitat in any way. It is also illegal to buy or sell any species (or products made from species) listed as endangered."

The yacht will, of course, be returned to the billionaire sans the endangered animal heads and skins. Additionally, Sapir will have to pay a $150,000 fine, which is pretty irrelevant considering he is ranked number 522 on Forbes’ Richest Americans list, net worth $1.4 billion.  After amassing a fortune bartering fertilizer and oil in the 1980s, his hobby is collecting dead lion heads, mind-blowing. Whatever happened to collecting Ferraris?