Gibson Guitar Corp... [ran]
...afoul of U.S. authorities over allegedly illegal imports of wood. Though
no charges have been filed, Gibson factories have been raided twice,
most recently last week, by federal agents who say ebony exported from
India to Gibson was "fraudulently" labeled to conceal a contravention of
Indian export law. Federal agents with the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service shut down the Gibson Guitar factory in
Memphis Aug. 24 to serve search warrants. Henry Juszkiewicz, chief executive officer of the
closely held company, said in an interview that a broker probably made a
mistake in labeling the goods but that the sale was legal and approved
by Indian authorities.
Gibson's predicament, which raises concerns for musical instrument
makers and other importers of wood, illustrates the pitfalls of
complying with U.S. law while dealing with middlemen in faraway
countries whose legal systems can be murky.
The law ensnaring Gibson is the Lacey Act of 1900, originally passed
to regulate trade in bird feathers used for hats and amended in 2008 to
cover wood and other plant products. It requires companies to make
detailed disclosures about wood imports and bars the purchase of goods
exported in violation of a foreign country's laws.
Leonard Krause, a consultant in Eugene, Ore., who
advises companies on complying with the Lacey Act, is telling clients
they should hire lawyers in countries where they obtain products. "How
many people know the statutes in India?" Mr. Krause said. "The net
effect is that it raises everybody's cost of doing business."
Federal agents first raided Gibson factories in November 2009 and
were back again Aug. 24, seizing guitars, wood and electronic records.
Gene Nix, a wood product engineer at Gibson, was questioned by agents
after the first raid and told he could face five years in jail.
"Can you imagine a federal agent saying, 'You're going to jail for
five years' and what you do is sort wood in the factory?" said Mr.
Juszkiewicz, recounting the incident. "I think that's way over the top."
Gibson employees, he said, are being "treated like drug criminals." By JAMES R. HAGERTY and KRIS MAHER [MORE] from WSJ
The Gibson Guitar saga has taken a sinister turn.
It seems that the Department of Justice wasn’t satisfied with merely
raiding the law abiding factories of Gibson Guitar with armed agents,
shutting down their operation costing them millions, and leaving the
American company in the dark as to how to proceed without going out of
business.
Now, according to CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, agents of the United States
government are bluntly informing them that they’d be better off shipping
their manufacturing labor overseas. In an interview with KMJ AM’s “The Chris Daniel Show,” Juszkiewicz revealed some startling information. [MORE] via REDSTATE
