A mother and son have been found guilty of attempting to illegally export pounamu to China over the legal limit.
It’s the first successful prosecution of its kind by New Zealand Customs after the pair were found carrying 17.9 kilograms of the stone in their luggage at Auckland International Airport in July 2024.
Under the Customs Export Prohibition (Pounamu) Order 2021, it is illegal for a single exporter to take more than 5kg of raw pounamu out of New Zealand without proper consent.
Judge Richard McIlraith acknowledged the defendants may not have properly understood the law, but emphasised “ignorance of the law is no defence to this charge”.
Defendants Boyuan Zhang and his mother Xin Li were not travelling alone at the time.
Zhang earlier told the court he believed the weight of the pounamu he and his mother were carrying could be shared between others in their group, even if they weren’t physically carrying stones.
Central to the case was the meaning of “single exporter”.
A mother and son have been on trial in the Manukau District Court. (Source: 1News)
During closing submissions last week, prosecution lawyer Anna Devasathan addressed this point.
“If Your Honour prefers the prosecution submissions, that is a single exporter, and that is the only meaning of that term, then the defendants are responsible for all of that pounamu.
“But even if Your Honour were to prefer my learned friend's submissions and treat either of the defendants as single exporters in their own right, I want to stress that that does not lead to an approach where the total amount of pounamu is divided by three or by four.”
She said the evidence, which included “text messages” and “changing accounts”, showed “they were actively and deliberately taking steps to evade the rules”.
Just two months earlier, Zhang’s father and Li’s husband, Jiangbo Zhang, had also been caught with pounamu in his possession
Customs discovered and seized two stones in his luggage weighing 61kg in total, but the boarding gate closed before the agency could speak with him.
While not a party to the case, Ngāi Tahu holds legal ownership of all naturally occurring pounamu within its tribal boundaries under the Ngāi Tahu (Pounamu Vesting) Act 1997.
Exporting pounamu in quantities over 5kg is only permitted with the approval of the Customs Minister, following advice from Ngāi Tahu.
For raw pounamu sourced from the Arahura River, any export exceeding this limit requires consent from the Mawhera Incorporation, a group representing the area’s original Māori landowners.
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