He’s making one other splash.
The entitled vacationer charged with hurling a large rock at an endangered Hawaiian monk seal claims he was really doing a very good factor – by attempting to avoid wasting a pair of helpless turtles.
Igor Lytvynchuk, 38, was hit with federal expenses and crushed up by locals after the caught-on-video incident at a Lahaina seashore on Might 5, however was solely attempting to guard the turtles — identified domestically as honu — by scaring the beloved seal away, his lawyer advised reporters.
“I wish to be resoundingly clear to the general public – he by no means supposed to injure the monk seal,” lawyer Myles Breiner advised KHON-TV Information. “He wished to scare the seal away from the honu he noticed there.
“Apparently, there have been two giant turtles and one had already been knocked off the rock by the seal,” Breiner advised the outlet. “Sea lions are very aggressive.”
The knucklehead from Seattle went viral after a bystander filmed him throwing a coconut-sized rock on the seal that Hawaiians lovingly name Lani, and made issues worse when requested why.
“I don’t care,” he advised the girl who filmed the alleged assault. “High quality me. I’m wealthy.”
Enraged locals tracked him down and at the least one man slugged him over the incident.
Lytvynchuk is now dealing with a federal cost of disturbing or harassing an endangered animal and will withstand one 12 months in jail and a $50,000 high quality.
“He acknowledges he made a foul choice,” Breiner stated.
Nevertheless, the lawyer stated the flippant assertion attributed to his consumer is off the mark.
“The assertion was, ‘I can afford it,’” he stated.
