The star of the Sportsman Channel’s “The Syndicate” has been charged in a Noatak National Preserve poaching investigation.
All of Clark Dixon‘s hunts in Alaska, dating back to those featured on “The Syndicate” from 2011, were conducted illegally, according to charging documents filed Monday.
A U.S. Attorney’s Office release says he and nine other individuals have been charged in Fairbanks U.S. District Court for their participation in the multi-year poaching operation on the Noatak National Preserve, located south of the Brooks Range.
Charges claim Dixon operated in violation of the Lacey Act, a string of plant and wildlife protections. Over the years, Dixon permitted others to use his personal aircraft to transport non-Alaska-resident hunters to and from the field and to then transport their unlawfully taken game out of the field.
“All of the Alaska big game animals documented on The Syndicate were illegally killed,” the documents say, listing numerous statutes Dixon allegedly violated.
Along with illegal hunting, Dixon is accused of posing as a guide, same day airborne hunting and misreporting who shot the animals.
Dixon has been hunting for decades, following a watershed hunting trip when his father took him to the Arctic Circle, according to a Sportsman Channel bio.
“About nine years ago Clark packed up his things and moved to Alaska where he fishes in the spring and summer and returns to the same campground he took his first moose in 1986,” the bio reads.
U.S. District Attorney Karen Loeffler says Dixon should have known his actions, and the actions of his co-defendants, were illegal.
“Some of these provisions are pretty well known, and certainly lying about who shot the animal is not something that you should have to research a book about,” Loeffler said. “Sorry, but lying is lying.”
If convicted, Dixon faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine and will have to forfeit the aircraft and other equipment used to import/export and acquire the wildlife.
