Email from Macumba Safaris to Victor Betzold

Mr. Betzold

I have sent every email to Clive regarding your trophy. As you know I have been hunting from 2004 to 2008 with Malagarasi Safari(owned by Licky Abdallah).

Up to the end of 2007 I have never had a problem with this company. They have always paid the trophy fee after receiving the amount from me. The trophy of 2008 was paid by me to licky Abdallah some in august 2008 and the balance December 2008. Unfortunately Licky did not pay to the government the trophy fee of most of the clients. (OF WHICH I WAS UNAWARE OF ONLY TO DISCOVER IN LATE 2009)

I am not the only professional hunter that is in this situation. We are four professional hunters.

2009 and 2010 I did not hunt with any  company owned by Licky Abdallah.

FEBRUARY 2011 I contacted again Licky to see what I could do with all of the clients trophies that were not sent. I made an arrangement with him to REPAY the trophy fee of the outstanding clients and to recover this amount or part of this amount I was doing a couple of elephant hunts in the Selous and at the end of each hunt taking all trophies with me and giving them to the taxidermist that I use in Arusha to be exported. (after been burnt once, that was the only condition). I paid again end of Feb 2011 with the promise that the documentation was starting the next day after receiving the payment. It was  a couple of days that I tried to get hold of Licky with out success.

I just booked my ticket for Friday the 15th April to go to TZ to resolve the matter with other professional hunters Licky and game department. With the game department I have to start everything again because last month the director of wild life was let go and replaced by a new director. Mr. Betzold I have not neglected this matter and won't stop working on it that's why I paid the second time.  THIS ISSUE IS A NIGHTMARE!!!! I AM EVEN PREPARED TO PUT THIS CASE IN THE HANDS OF A LAWYER.

As soon as I am back from TZ I will inform you immediate on how we plan to move forward in this matter.

Best Regards,

Mauro 

Email from Macumba Safaris to The Hunting Report

Thank you for giving us the opportunity to clarify the issues in the complaint you received.

Mr Betzolds trophy shipment was delayed due to the unethical behaviour of Malagarasi Safaris (Concession owner - Licky Abdallah) over the past 3 years.  We settle our trophy fee accounts (all other accounts are paid upfront) immediately after each hunt.  But with Malagarasi Safaris we had to pay the 2008 hunting season trophy fees numerous times (at our cost) to get our clients trophy fees released with legal representation.  Please note that if there is any doubt from anyones side whether Macumba Safaris paid the necessary fees  we do have all the proof of payments made to Malagarasi as well as agreements.  This has taken much longer to get resolved as Malagaris did not honor the agreements, but Mr Daolio has just spent a month in Tanzania with his legal advisers to get this finalized.  Mr Daolio was granted access to the trophies to confirm their existence and was happy to know that all was still intact.  We received assurance that the trophies will be shipped within the next 6 weeks and will inform Mr Betzold as soon as I receive notification.

We do apologize for the inconvenience to Mr Betzold and hope this would finally be resolved.

Please feel free to contact me should you need any further clarification.  Mauro is currently hunting and not readily available.

Please let me know what (if any) response you receive from Malagarasi. 

Best regards

Jeanine Hal

Email from Macumba Safaris to The Hunting Report

He never gave a reason why they are not being shipped, just kept on assuring us that they will be shipped shortly.  We had to investigate the reason ourselves for the delay and was informed that the trophy fees were not paid over to the government (Game Department) by Mr Abdallah and the Game Department refused to release the trophies to be shipped, even though we paid the same trophy fees over and over again to give Mr Abdallah the funds to settle the account.  Unfortunately he did not honour this.

We were obliged to pay the trophy fees to the concession owners (Mr Abdallah) whose responsibility it was to pay the Game Department. Macumba Safaris now have permission to pay all government fees for any hunt directly to the Game Department and we hope this will prevent future incidents!

Best regards

Jeanine

Email from The Hunting Report to Macumba Safaris

Thank you, Jeanine.

Mr. Abdallah has yet to respond to my inquiry. I will ask him directly why he never shipped the trophies. Who is shipping Mr. Betzold's trophies? Have they gone to the taxidermist or shipper already? They are not still in Mr. Abdallah's possession, are they?

Barbara

Email from Macumba Safaris to The Hunting Report

I actually cant answer that, I will ask Mauro these questions when he calls me again and let you know (have to wait for him to call me from his sat phone).  He is planning to return to Dar es Salaam between hunts to follow up as well, and we will let the clients know as soon as we have all the shipping details.

You have no idea how desperate we are to get this resolved  it has made a huge impact on Mauros reputation as nothing like this has ever happened to us before and it has driven the Italian mad.  Licky will still give him a heart attack !! L

We would love to know how Licky could get hunting licenses if he didnt pay the trophy fees of the previous hunts&. We settle the trophy fees directly after each hunt and then only get the next hunts licence.  As Mauro says  he must have some powerful contacts to get away with this.  After still owing the game department fees, he was still allocated his concessions again  amazing!!!

Email from Victor Betzold to The Hunting Report

Barbara:

Reference your questions below about the location and control of my trophies, I was given the following name and address for my CITES form:

African Trophy Hunting

Dar es Salaam

Tanzania

I dont know if this is Abdallahs operation.

Since Macumba did not respond positively to your inquiry about their control of the trophies, I conclude that they are still under Abdallahs control  or possibly the Tanzanian governments control, since he didnt pay his fees. 

I dont know why Macumba said they would be shipped within 6 weeks.  It would be interesting to know who said that.  That seems like another delaying tactic, by someone.  We are rapidly approaching 6 weeks from the date of that communication.  I have heard nothing.

I guess we have to wait out the expiration of the 6 week period, then likely take another direction.  I dont know what that will be.

Thanks,

Vic

Rebuttal from Macumba:

I will take it upon myself to reply to your email as Mauro is hunting in Tanzania at the moment and will only be back in the office on December 13, 2006.

We are aware that Mr. McFadden was dissapointed in his hunt. All we can attribute this to is a stroke of bad luck. I'm sure you are aware that Kigosi is a very large concession and nothing is guaranteed during these hunts. Mr. McFadden did have an opportunity to shoot a lion, but unfortunately missed.

The client just after Mr. McFadden shot the same lion a few days later from the same spot as Mr. McFadden. In all our years hunting in the area, Mr. McFadden was the only client to date to leave Tanzania without his cat. Five to six lion are shot in this area every season, depending on our quota. During his hunt he was accompanied by a friend, Mr. Blackwell did take a lion during his hunt as well as an elephant. I'm sure that if he did shoot his lion, he would not have considered it an expensive plains game hunt, although our plains game hunts are based on the same daily rates as the lion hunt.