Posted on 02/02/2014 1:02:51 AM PST by sheikdetailfeather
In 2011, the Department of Justice conducted raids on the Tennessee facilities of the famed Gibson Guitar company and confiscated large quantities of tonewood that had been imported from India and Madagascar. The action included armed SWAT teams, with automatic weapons, who apparently feared being garroted with a guitar string by an enraged Gibson employee. These raids were conducted due to the Lacey Act, which bans the importing of certain woods. The issue at hand was not that the wood was endangered or illegally harvested, but that it was not of the proper thickness that would have meant that some labor had been performed on it by workers in India and Madagascar. This was the law in Madagascar and India as a nod to the unions in those countries. Gibson, who hand-makes its guitars, cannot guarantee the craftsmanship of its products if a portion of the work is done outside their facilities.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Well, that shines a different light on it. On the one hand it seems Gibson made a poor business decision to buy the wood but on the other hand they’ll probably make a bigger profit off it now! Isn’t it a bit unusual that the wood was returned or would that be customary?
Thanks for posting your info’.
The author is mistaken. Madagascar never okayed the sale. The wood sold was under government seizure at the point of Roger Thunam's business in Madagascar because it had been illegally logged after the 2006 ban.
Gibson knew this because its employee, Gene Nix, had visited the site and had reported by email and report that Thunam was not a legal source for the wood.
Gibson bought the wood from Thunam through Theodor Nagel Gmbh, a German exotic wood company.
Thunam used falsified government papers (which don't remotely resemble the actual permits required) and false customs papers identifying the shipment by a Harmonized Tariff code that included pre-built roof joists.
In your face, commie stooges, in ... your ... face!!!
That's Gibson's PR spin.
The wood that was subject to the two civil forfeiture actions was NOT returned to Gibson.
Gibson received a return of the East Indian Rosewood (and I'd have to look through the litigation files, but I believe long ago).
However, Gibson forfeited the East Indian Ebony and the Madagascar Ebony, which were the only two woods subject to civil forfeiture actions.
Gibson doesn't mention this in its press releases, but failure to disclose the actual facts has been Gibson's normal course of business throughout.
These raids probably saved Gibson.
Gibson was in financial trouble before the Nashville flood, and in severe financial trouble after the flood. Among other things, there were discussions of selling Gibson's "The Gibson" banjo business. Production of mandolins was halted for almost a year (I bought the fourth mandolin made after production re-started).
Before the 2011 raid, Gibson had refused to provided audited financial statements to its lenders for two years. The audited financial statements were required each year. Failure to provide them was a default under Gibson's loans.
Gibson Guitar CEO picks fight with lenders after alienating retailers and employees
After the second raid, with the help of conservative bloggers who never bothered to read the official documents, Gibson's PR spin, and Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz's outright lies in media interviews, conservatives and Tea Party members adopted Gibson as a cause.
Gibson never suggested it was being targeted by the government until well after the conservative blogosphere had established that as the 'truth.'
Gibson's sales soared to levels never seen before and the company has been saved.
Taking what Gibson did, and showing some REAL class, would have been for both Martin and Fender to split Gibson’s out-of-pocket expenses (Legal and their fine) equally to show some true support for what Gibson did.
In 1960 or 1961, Gibson sought a ruling in U.S. Customs Court that these "fingerboards" were not a finished product because the blanks required planing to thickness, cutting to width and length, and other work. The Customs Court ruled in favor of Gibson.
Gibson sought the ruling so it would not have to pay a tariff on the importation of finished products.
After that ruling, it was U.S. customs law that these fingerboard blanks were unfinished products. That was the law when Gibson imported the blanks at issue.
Disregarding all of the other Lacey Act and customs problems, Gibson asserted that the fingerboard blanks imported in 2011 were 'finished' blanks, although they were the same blanks that were deemed 'unfinished' per U.S. customs law based on a determination that Gibson had previously sought.
India's Harmonized Tariff System permitted the export of "finished" fingerboard blanks for musical instruments, which is presumably why the importer, Luther's Mercantile, elected to declare the blanks as a 'finished' product contrary to U.S. law.
I feel certain the distinction between finished and unfinished blanks has not been strictly enforced.
Incidentally, in the thirteen-month period predating the seizure in Dallas of these East Indian Rosewood and Ebony blanks, Gibson had successfully imported East Indian Rosewood blanks eleven times. I've seen no indication that the eleven successful importations involved missing Lacey Act paperwork, changed Harmonized Tariff codes, mislabeling of the import container contents on the container and import paperwork, misidentification of the ultimate consignee, and other errors. Only the importation seized by Fish and Wildlife at the Dallas airport in 2011 involved those problems.
Representatives of Martin and Fender accompanied Gibson employee Gene Nix on the Madagascar trip and the visit to Roger Thunam's business.
Neither Martin nor Fender subsequently bought any Madagascar ebony from Thunam.
Thanks.
btw, it’s http://www.opensecrets.org/
I hadn't been following this story as closely as I'd like. What I find shameful is that there was little action on the part of Tennessee Congressional Representatives in either defense of Gibson or to fix the Lacey Act. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) co-sponsored the Amendment to the Lacey Act in 2008 that included wood in its wording. Government agencies then interpreted this as a violation due to a clerical error on the part of the company that imported the wood for Gibson. The larger issues here, for me, are the outrageous government response to what has been coined a 'civil matter' and the fact that neither can I find any action on the part of Congress to fix the Lacey Act nor any action on the part of Tennessee Congressmen on the part of Gibson. Gibson may very well have been on both sides of the fence, politically (smart business), but the result seems to have left then out in the cold.
I wait with bated breath the outing of this Special Edition guitar on a nationally-televised musical event. (color me 'blue')
Candidly (and personally), I'm not a better person after reading your 'sharings' on the whole Gibson matter.
The Retailers and Entertainers Lacey Implementation and Enforcement Fairness Act (RELIEF), H.R. 3210, introduced by Representative Jim Cooper (D, TN), after a campaign contribution from Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz. I consulted with two members of the NAMM committee and was asked by Rep. Cooper's office to meet with his staffers on the issue.
I've become more disillusioned with Gibson the longer it issues press releases, and the longer Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz gives interviews, that are at odds with the facts shown in the legal pleadings, including Gibson's own legal pleadings.
It hasn't kept me from buying some Gibson instruments during that time.
However, I'm more frustrated with the media, which reports Gibson's press releases as facts, and doesn't bother to read the readily available source documents. Journalists don't research any longer.
Ping, in case you haven’t been keeping up.
I have a better idea. learn to read. It was constantly stated nobody should go bankrupt over an illness. I said an idea, not a part of the law.
Find someone else to troll.
Thanks for the ping. Too many threads, too little time. Great job reporting, thanks for all the info.
If anyone is trolling, it’s you. Stating that Obamacare was based on a good idea is disingenuous at best. The purpose of the pre-existing condition exclusion was to make the insurers dependent on subsidies, not to protect citizens from economic misfortune.
My comment at the other posting is pasted below:
Seeing the additional posts and reading comments, I went back to dig a bit. I found the following:
Gibson Guitar Corp. Responds to Federal Raid
Gibson Les Paul Guitars With Less Ebony
Gibson Guitar Corporation admits to importing endangered wood
India import led to probe at 2 Tenn. Gibson Guitar plants
Gibson guitars set to miss Indian notes as raids in US and Europe on Gibson's facilities continue
Now The Gibson Guitar Raids Make SenseNow The Gibson Guitar Raids Make Sense
In my opinion, I think it's clear that things are 'not clear'. I leave it to someone else with more time than I to wade through all the BS, but hold to my opinion above. There is also the apparently UNRESOLVED ISSUE of 'possession of endangered woods'; you all know what that means.
"Now there are 4,500 laws and hundreds of thousands of regulations that no one, not even a lawyer, not a judge, could possibly know. Furthermore, there is no central location or website that an average citizen can go to find out what the federal crimes are. And that matters when intent does not have to be proven to be convicted," Paul Larkin, senior legal research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, told Newsmax.From here:
Last year, Blackburn and fellow U.S. Reps. Jim Cooper of Nashville, a Democrat, introduced legislation they said would protect people from charges for unknowingly possessing illegally imported wood, and would require the federal government to establish a database of forbidden wood sources.Last October: US reps seek new law after raids at Gibson guitars
Officials with the U.S. Justice Department and the Interior Department in a letter to members of Congress last month said it is not a crime to "unknowingly possess" such instruments, and that prosecutors would target only "those who are removing protected species from the wild and making a profit by trafficking in them." Blackburn said the bill would make that approach the law. "We don't want individuals to have to depend on the language of that letter," she said.Well, the only legislation 'I' can find at congress.gov is H.R.3280, and it's languishing in Committee...
“Do you think that we want those laws to be observed? We want them broken.
There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power the government has is the power to crack down on criminals.
Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them.
One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.”
– Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.