Company Sentenced in Ginseng Prosecution

LA CROSSE, Wis.A company that unlawfully purchased wild ginseng has agreed to pay $100,000 in fines and restitution.

Wiebke Produce Inc. also has agreed not to purchase or sell ginseng in any state until August 2015, The Associated Press reported.

The company, which is also known as Wiebke Fur & Trading Company, is said to have pleaded guilty in August to violating an anti-poaching law.

According to its website, the company "is a third-generation, family-owned business" that has more than half a century of experience dealing with goldenseal, morel mushrooms, raw fur and whitetail deerskins. It has stores in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

Edward McCann, a conservation warden with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, noted that the case was unusual.

"I don't know of another buyer (of ginseng) being prosecuted," the La Crosse Tribune quoted him as saying in an article on the sentencing.

James Koby, an attorney for Weibke, said his clients didn't deliberately violate the law, according to the newspaper.