The department has records of more than 670 animals he has exported to the US since 1993. The list includes 418 reptiles sold to a smuggling outfit in Hollywood. Ghiazza also sold two elephants orphaned in a Kruger National Park cull to pop idol Michael Jackson in 1993. The US department started investigating Ghiazza after receiving reports that he was shipping planeloads of animals to China and that hundreds of them died en route. Legitimate South African traders say some US outfits are now insisting on written guarantees that they have no links to Ghiazza before they will deal with them.
Traders say South Africa is the world's largest exporter of animals by ship and airfreight.
They say Ghiazza had become South Africa's biggest wildlife exporter shortly before the Tuli scandal broke. It is impossible to put exact figures to the wildlife trade in South Africa because customs figures are unreliable and don't reflect illegal trade. An example of the quick bucks Ghiazza makes from his deals is provided in a report compiled by the trade monitoring group Traffic. Ghiazza was out of the country and not available for comment at the time of going to press.