This is all so double so here some of my thoughts about this :
if we look at the history of zoos we have to think how animals come into these places we like so much ! In the late 1800s - early 1900s hardly ( if any ) laws were existing to protect animals so in fact everybody who wanted to have a surtain species and had the money for it, could go out in the wild and catch what he wanted.
Later laws to protect a number of species came in action which is of course a very good thing but if zoos with a big name ( and also smaller zoos ) needed protected animals there were mostly ways in which they could get them ( with special licences, as a gift from country to country ( think of Giant pandas, Komodo dragons, Tuatara's ) or confiscated animals ).
In the meantime the trade of wild animals which weren't protected flourished and zoos did have normaly no problems to obtain animals from dealers or private collectors.
Even obvious smuggled animals were still obtained in the 1970s - 1980s because otherwhile zoos ( and private breeders ) couldn't show Fijian banded iguanas and Spix's macaws to name just 2.
Private collectors CAN play an important role in conservation nowadays and yes, there are persons with a questionable ( criminal ) background but I guess in every layer of the present society you will find such people ( politicians are a good example ! ) but if their work can be changed into something good, we should to have accept this.
Best example here again the Spix's macaw : a rich Philippine collector obtained some illegal, started to breed them, sold them to an even wealthier sheikh and then came into the hand of a private conservation center from which its said that they also have criminal backgrounds. Evenso, ACTP did very well with the Spix's macaws and a few large public collections didn't had problems to get birds and do business with this 'dubious' center !
Another example: a UK-based private collector is almosed adored because he has Marbled cats but these animals must have come from somewhere ( hardly any are bred so I assume they were wild-caught ). However, because these animals are so rare and a lot of zoo-loving people want to see the species, hardly anybody is asking about the orgin of these animals !?
I agree 100% with
@Chlidonias that smuggling geckos from New Zealand and Iguanas from the Galapagos isn't the right way to start breeding-programms but on the other side, as long as money rules the world, such things will occure. And if such animals come into the hands of the right people ( not necessary zoos ! ) they can become important for breeding-programms !
I just hope CTC Conservation Center will leave its "black" past behind itself and become a Conservation Center like other "legal" centers and cooperate with zoos and wildlife societies - which they are already doing if we should believe the video ( re-introduction of African wild dogs ).
Also it would be intresting to follow how they will do with the African wild cats and who knows, maybe some day some Ugandan bred African golden cats will turn-up in some European or American zoo.
).
!