Cincinnati Man Ryan J. Gibbs Buys Tiger Skin Rug, Pleads Guilty

CINCINNATI, Ohio — Ryan J. Gibbs, 44, of Cincinnati, paid $3,000 for a tiger skin rug — and today, he pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to violating the Endangered Species Act. The transaction, carried out with an undercover federal agent posing as a wildlife trafficker, exposed a black-market operation feeding the illegal trade of endangered animal parts.

According to court documents, in August 2018, Gibbs reached out to a man in the United Kingdom seeking to buy a tiger skin rug. The seller claimed it was illegal to ship the skin to the U.S., but offered a connection in Minnesota with inventory. That contact turned out to be an undercover Special Agent with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Gibbs began emailing and calling the agent, expressing interest not only in a tiger skin but also a mounted flamingo — both protected or restricted under federal law.

In December 2018, Gibbs met the agent near Jeffersonville, Ohio, where he purchased three mounted birds — a tufted puffin, a horned puffin, and a flamingo — for $1,200. The conversation turned explicitly to the risks of trafficking tiger parts across state lines, with Gibbs acknowledging the illegality even as he pressed forward. Over the next eight months, Gibbs remained in contact, negotiating the eventual purchase of the tiger hide.

The deal closed in August 2019, when Gibbs met the agent again near Jeffersonville and handed over $3,000 in cash for the tiger skin. At the time, he knew full well the animal was listed as endangered under the Code of Federal Regulations — Panthera tigris — and that buying, selling, or transporting its parts across state lines was a federal crime.

Under the plea agreement, Gibbs will serve one year of probation and complete 80 hours of community service, preferably with an Ohio-based nonprofit or government agency involved in wildlife conservation. He must also pay $100,000 to the Lacey Act Reward Account — a fund used to combat illegal wildlife trafficking — and forfeit a stuffed lion, two stuffed puffins, a panther skin, and a sawfish rostrum found in his possession.

The case was announced by David M. DeVillers, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Jeffrey Bossert Clark, Assistant Attorney General for the Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division; Erryl Wolgemuth, Supervisor with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; and Franklin County Prosecutor Ron O’Brien. It was prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Michael Marous and Adam C. Cullman, Trial Attorney with the DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division. Senior U.S. District Judge James L. Graham accepted the plea.

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