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Feds Raid Gibson Guitar Factory
<div class="hmedia related-media m-17"><p class="photo"><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/26/feds-environmental-enforcement-on-guitars-leaves-musicians-in-fear/">http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/08/26/feds-environmental-enforcement-on-guitars-leaves-musicians-in-fear/</a></p><p class="photo"> </p><p class="photo"><img src="http://a57.foxnews.com/static/managed/img/Politics/396/223/Gibson%20Guitar%20CEO_082511.jpg" alt="Gibson Guitar CEO_082511" /></p><p class="contributor vcard"><span class="fn">The Tennessean</span></p><p class="fn">Gibson Guitar CEO Henry Juszkiewicz speaks about the raid by federal authorities, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2011 at the plant on Massman Drive in Nashville, Tenn.</p></div><p style="font-size: 14px;">The <a class="r_lapi" href="http://www.foxnews.com/topics/politics/justice-department.htm#r_src=ramp">Justice Department</a> raided the Memphis and Nashville offices of a guitar manufacturing company this week, seizing several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars as part of a crackdown on illegally harvested hardwoods from protected forests, The Wall Street Journal reported.</p><p style="font-size: 14px;">But Henry Juszkiewicz, the chairman and chief executive of Gibson Guitar, defended his company’s manufacturing policies and accused the Justice Department of overreaching.</p><p style="font-size: 14px;">"The wood the government seized Wednesday is from a Forest Stewardship Council certified supplier," he said in a statement to the newspaper, suggesting the Feds are using the aggressive enforcement of overly broad laws to snare the company.</p><p style="font-size: 14px;">The Justice Department refused to speak to the newspaper.</p><p style="font-size: 14px;">This isn’t the first time that the company – which makes such iconic instruments as the Les Paul electric guitar, the J-160E acoustic-electric <a class="r_lapi" href="http://www.foxnews.com/topics/entertainment/music/pop-rock-1955-2002/john-lennon.htm#r_src=ramp">John Lennon</a> played, and essential jazz-boxes such as Charlie Christian's ES-150 -- has been raided by agents with the Fish and Wildlife Service.</p><p style="font-size: 14px;">In 2009 the Feds seized several guitars and pallets of wood from a Gibson factory, and both sides have been wrangling over the goods in court.</p><p style="font-size: 14px;">The first raid appeared to try to determine whether Gibson had been buying illegally harvested hardwoods from protected forests, such as the <a class="r_lapi" href="http://www.foxnews.com/topics/madagascar.htm#r_src=ramp">Madagascar</a> ebony that makes for such lovely fretboard, the newspaper reported. But if Gibson did knowingly import illegally harvested ebony from Madagascar, that wouldn't be a negligible offense, the newspaper said.</p><p style="font-size: 14px;">Peter Lowry, ebony and rosewood expert at the Missouri Botanical <a class="kLink" style="text-decoration: underline !important; position: static;" href="#"><span style="color: blue;"><span class="kLink" style="color: blue !important; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-weight: 400; position: relative;">Garden</span></span></a>, calls the Madagascar wood trade the "equivalent of Africa's blood diamonds." But with the new raid, the government seems to be questioning whether some wood sourced from <a class="r_lapi" href="http://www.foxnews.com/topics/india.htm#r_src=ramp">India</a> met every regulatory detail, the newspaper said.</p><p> </p>
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hey admin... don't you think it's wrong that they were pumping money into companys that were at the brink of going under... all the wile going after american MADE companys that were keeping people with jobs for no lagit reasons?
there is a fire storm on the front in this country and i hope it starts with burning down the people who want to kill the
MADE IN AMERICA PRIDE... there retoric can say what it wants.. but the truth allways shines brightist! just read the papers... even the left is turning against it's own,....
just for the record.. i am not left nor right... i believe the center is the right place for such a diverse country as we are.....
or at least close... that is what seems to be right to me.
peace,
my link below does not work... this is the right one.
please watch it all the way through.... its copy and past.
http://video.foxnews.com/v/1147697313001/gibson-guitars-raid-and-fallout-over-illegal-wood/?playlist_id=86858
http://video.foxnews.com/v/1147697313001/gibson-guitars-raid-and-fallout-over-illegal-wood/
UPDATE,
HERE'S WHAT IT REALLY BOILS DOWN TO:
Gibson Guitar Corp. is claiming the Obama administration wants more of its woodwork done overseas, as a bizarre battle heats up between the government and one of the country's most renowned guitar makers.
The dispute started in 2009, when federal agents raided the company over suspect wood shipments from Madagascar. Gibson took that case to court but has denounced the administration with a vengeance after agents returned late last month to raid several Gibson factories -- this time out of concern that Indian export laws had been violated.
Though some reports on the dispute have cited environmental concerns, court documents suggest the latest battle boils down to a simple, non-environmental question -- which country is working on the wood?
Gibson's CEO has said repeatedly that the only reason his company is in trouble is because U.S. workers are completing work on guitar fingerboards in the United States. In an interview earlier this week, CEO Henry Juszkiewicz claimed that the U.S. government even suggested Gibson's troubles would disappear if the company used foreign labor.
The Justice Department is hamstrung from talking about the case because it's an ongoing investigation. Justice spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle told FoxNews.com only that agents were looking for evidence of "possible violations" of a law governing imports of plants and wildlife.
Hornbuckle also confirmed that no charges have yet been filed in either of the two cases.
Court documents help explain the root of the tree dispute. According to search warrants associated with the latest raid, federal agents in June intercepted a shipment of Indian ebony apparently bound for Gibson in Tennessee. The documents noted that Indian law "prohibits the export of sawn wood," which can be used for fingerboards -- but does not prohibit the export of "veneers," which are sheets of woods that have already been worked on.
The search warrants alleged that the intercepted shipment was "falsely declared" as veneer, something that would have been legal. However, the documents said the ebony was in fact unfinished "sawn wood," supposedly illegal.
This led to the raid on Gibson facilities late last month.
Juszkiewicz said in a statement that the U.S. government has effectively suggested "that the use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Department's interpretation of a law in India."
A representative at the Indian Embassy in Washington could not be reached for comment.
But Juszkiewicz has since claimed that his company's wood exports do in fact comply with Indian law, even if American workers are doing some of the work.
In an interview on the company website, Juszkiewicz said Gibson "for decades" has purchased fingerboard wood that is two-thirds finished.
"The fact that American workers are completing the work in the United States makes it illegal," he said, citing the government's position.
Juszkiewicz maintains Gibson is still complying with the law.
IT WOULD APPEAR I WAS RIGHT, THEY DO HAVE SOMTHING MORE IMPORTAINT AT STAKE...
KILLING AMERICAN JOBS ONE JOB AT A TIME!
THATS NOT TRUE "SNIFF,SNIFF"
MY GUITAR IS ILLEGAL?
seems like our government is just picking on Gibson.
Damn right Jim Easton......
yeah this has been going on for some time. My wife told me I should think about buying a few Gibson's for investments. Yeah she's a keeper.
It's alittle late to seize wood once a tree has been chopped down.
More info....
http://nashvillepost.com/news/2011/8/25/gibson_ceo_bemoans_overreaching_federal_government
Gibson CEO bemoans 'overreaching federal government'
Juszkiewicz responds to raids for Indian woods; 'I've instructed my staff to continue building'
Published August 25, 2011 by J.R. Lind
A day after federal agents raided its facilities for the second time in two years, Gibson Guitar went on the offensive Thursday.
Speaking to the press outside of Gibson's Massman Road plant, CEO Henry Juszkiewicz bemoaned the actions of an "overreaching" government agency.
"We feel the arrogance of federal power is impacting us and that's just wrong," he said.
Juszkiewicz said U.S. Fish & Wildlife agents seized ebony and rosewood imported from India in the most recent raid, believing the seizure — like the taking of rosewood and ebony from Madagascar in a 2009 raid — is related to an investigation of violations of the Lacey Act.
A seminal piece of environmental legislation, the Lacey Act, among other things, requires that U.S. buyers certify they have followed the laws of foreign countries when importing certain lumber. Juszkiewicz insisted his company followed the relevant Indian law and, thus, is not in violation of the Lacey Act. Indeed, he said he has ordered production to continue in Nashville and at a Memphis facility, also raided Tuesday.
"Supposedly, every guitar we build is a violation. I've instructed my staff to continue building and I am taking responsibility," he said.
He alluded also to the 2009 seizure of the Madagascar wood, noting the company is still trying to recover the lumber seized and emphasizing no criminal charges were brought as a result of that seizure.
To Juszkiewicz's knowledge, no other luthiers have been raided.
"Any large [guitar] company is using Indian rosewood and ebony and we are the only who have been singled out," he said. "We have been implicated in wrongdoing and we haven't been charged ... There's no due process."
The CEO frequently pivoted to anti-big government rhetoric, at one point implying Gibson was the victim of "class warfare."
"There is a lack of someone in this country who stands up and says 'I'm about everyone,'" he said.
Hey Digger - I read that also. If there is an ounce of truth to it, I feel sorry for the USA and our government should be investigated. Then again, if they were investigated, we would only have 2 or 3 people left.
This same agency gives a wink and nod to known illegal immigrants while stealing guitars and dead wood... that "MIGHT BE ILLEGAL"
Better go hide my ebony rifles and salad bowls...
Honestly.....
You would think that our government would have more important things to do with our money then to spend it on conviscating imported woods that have allready cleard coustoms and was in the warehouse of the biggest guitar manufacturer in the world.....
Any one can call anything retoric... but the truth is the truth...
the only thing this is doing is making there guitars more expensive.....
thanks fed... for all you do.
All the great tone woods are getting much harder to attain due to the rainforest supply depleting. It's not just the fact that it is expensive but almost impossible to find. Save all the old guitars you have with those rare tone woods. Soon Brazilian Rosewood, Chilean Mahogany, Swamp Ash will be in the past. I see a lot of Chinese and Korean are using woods like Alder and Poplar which much be hideous for tone. The good thing is there is an endless supply of decent Maple.