Avoiding trial, a former hedge fund manager turns over $70 million in stolen antiques

https://www.npr.org/2021/12/07/ [login to see] /michael-steinhardt-antiquities-prosecutor-seized-hedge-fund
A ceremonial cup from Turkey in the shape of a stag's head. Three death masks, likely unearthed from the mountains of Israel, dating back to 6000 or 7000 B.C. An ancient Greek chest for human remains.

Those are among the 180 stolen antiquities that former hedge fund manager and philanthropist Michael Steinhardt turned over under an agreement with New York City prosecutors. The deal, reached after a multiyear investigation into his activities, also slaps Steinhardt with a lifetime ban on collecting any other historical relics.

In exchange, Steinhardt will avoid prosecution for what authorities have called his "rapacious appetite for plundered artifacts" that crossed legal lines.

"His pursuit of 'new' additions to showcase and sell knew no geographic or moral boundaries, as reflected in the sprawling underworld of antiquities traffickers, crime bosses, money launderers, and tomb raiders he relied upon to expand his collection," Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. said in a statement on Monday.