You do know that “grey market” does not mean illegal, right?
If ebony was no longer available for direct import due to storm downed trees being depleted/already sold off, then having to go grey market makes perfect sense and is in itself not an indication of illegality.
The fact that some DOJ flunkie tries to make it sound illegal tells me that they are either liars or fools.
Sure, I know that.
You do know that "grey market" means "it's in the shadowy area and not necessarily legal", right?
Particularly when the "grey area" email was preceded by one from the same employee saying "there's no way we can buy it legally"?