Thousand Oaks Man Sentenced in Sale of Pelts : Wildlife: Philip Alvidrez admitted his role in selling two leopard and two Bengal tiger skins to an undercover federal agent. A search for the owner is still under way.

A Thousand Oaks man was sentenced Monday to six months in a halfway house, three years probation and a $2,000 fine for selling two leopard skins and two Bengal tiger skins to an undercover federal agent.

Philip Alvidrez, 35, the broker in a deal that brought the pelts from Pakistan and India, will begin serving his sentence on June 7, Assistant U.S. Atty. Nathan J. Hochman said.

Agents from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service contacted Alvidrez about a year ago, after an informant tipped them that the antiques and gem dealer was trying to peddle the skins of endangered animals, Hochman said.

Undercover agent Bill Talkin approached Alvidrez last spring, saying he was building a luxurious home and that decorating costs were not an issue.

“I said, ‘I heard through the grapevine that you have some cat skins,’ ” Talkin said. “I said I was a hunter and I used to go over there, but now it’s closed up with the endangered-species laws and I wanted to have the skins for my trophy room.”

Talkin spent nearly a month negotiating the sale with Alvidrez through telephone conversations and two face-to-face meetings. Authorities tried to string out the bargaining, Talkin said, in hopes of being able to move against the actual owner of the skins.

But when the owner did not appear likely to enter the United States soon, the agents decided to go ahead with the purchase, Talkin said.

“We felt we better go ahead and get this deal made, because the skins were being looked at by other individuals,” Talkin said. “It was either we wait too long and maybe lose it altogether, or move right now.”

The exchange of the four skins for $22,500 took place at a home Alvidrez was minding in Moorpark on May 28, 1992, Talkin said. The pelts were seized and the money recovered, but no formal action was taken against Alvidrez until an arrest warrant was issued on Nov. 9, Hochman said.

Alvidrez made a full confession at the time of the sale, Hochman said, and eventually pleaded guilty in February to trying to sell the pelts. The defendant’s cooperation with authorities led to the relatively light sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima.

The charge carries a maximum term of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine, Hochman said.