Dana with Gibson CEO - Henry Juszkiewicz (Audio)

Dana talks to Gibson CEO - Henry Juszkiewicz about the OVERSTEPPING of this administration - and the Dept. Of Justice raiding Gibson of inventory....AGAIN.

Did Juszkiewicz mention anything about:

The internal email to Gibson executives from the Gibson employee sent to Madagascar saying there was no lawful way to get the Madagascar Ebony that was the subject of the first raid?
The fact that the basis for the first raid started with a customs guy in Newark, NJ, who noticed that Gibson's shipment was missing the Lacey Act paperwork, didn't fully identify the wood being imported, and didn't list the nation of origin (Madgascar, which prohibited such export, but whose national forests were being logged by armed rebels, resulting in illegal shipments of Madagascar Ebony being laundered through other countries)?
That contrary to what everyone says, the U.S. brought suit against the 'contraband', as you do in seized customs cases, back in 2010?
That, before these second raids, U.S. officials seized a shipment of East Indian Rosewood at the airport in Dallas, where the customs and Lacey Act forms listed the contents as different than the East Indian Rosewood fingerboard lumber that was in the crates, some of which failed to state a ultimate consignee as required by law, but only contained instructions to call an intermediary?
That, when the intermediary was contacted, she filled out Lacey Act paperwork indicating that Gibson was the ultimate consignee?
That some of the other crates listed an intermediary as the ultimate consignee, and that intermediary admitted that the real ultimate consignee was Gibson?
That, although listing an intermediary as the ultimate consignee, those crates contained instructions to ship them by interstate courier to a location in control of Gibson?
That, before the raids last week, federal officials also noticed pallets of East Indian Rosewood in a warehouse? That, in checking the customs and Lacey Act paperwork, the federal officials found out that the Rosewood was incorrectly identified on the paperwork, and that the SAME intermediary was shown as the ultimate consignee, but that the warehouse had an email from the manager of the intermediary stating that wood was really Gibson's and that Gibson was the ultimate consignee for customs purposes?
That the federal officials then checked import records and found eleven import shipments since last August to Gibson of East Indian Rosewood and Ebony, all listed as "finished" products, which were legal to import, but none listed as raw materials?
And that the raids took place after that?

I'm uncomfortable with the idea of armed officials raiding Gibson, but I guess these are the same officials who raid other locations with game and wildlife contraband and they follow the same rules everywhere.

Gibson may very well be innocent.

Targeted? I've seen no evidence.

I understand some people find the idea of protected woods ridiculous, and the idea of spending time enforcing those import laws ridiculous.

I am simply bothered at all of the bloggers who report only what is in Gibson's press releases and who do not appear to have done any research on a very, very complicated situation.

I see you are really into guitars and know quite a bit about the Gibson case.

I have looked at your facts, but the one issue that comes back is that there are plenty of companies that have been attacked through law-fare by this administration. Especially if the company has anything to do with administration politics over environmental issues.

And- while it is true that Gibson was involved in some way in a investigation with the Bush administration, there was no warning, threat, cease and desist letter, or any other prior action other than this raid that we know about.

And- while it is true that the CEO of Gibson may not have volunteered any information about ‘contraband’ wood, the administration has used the power of its office to obfuscate investigations of every sort during its tenure over the admistration’s DOJ. Especially suspect were its recent responses during the Gunwalker hearings, its response in the Boeing NLRB actions, and its response to inquiries over closed door meetings with union officials dating back to the inception of the administration.

That is why, forgive us, if we look skeptically at a raid on the Gibson factory.

from my understanding, the Indian Rosewood would never have left India if Indian officials hadn’t signed off on it.

I only want to know the facts. If you can point me to a reliable source for that information, then I would greatly appreciate it if you would do so.

That still leaves lingering questions about the Indian Rosewood. Did the Indian government know what was in the sealed crates, or did they rely on Gibson's paperwork (in the case of the eleven shipments that went directly to Gibson) or the intermediary's paperwork (in the case of the Dallas airport shipments or the 'routed-through-Canada" shipments?

In the case of the eleven shipments that went directly to Gibson, Gibson's customs forms did not correctly identify what was in the containers. The customs forms and Lacey Act forms used HTS codes and descriptions for an item that was legal to export from India; the contents of the containers were not legal for export from India.

In the case of the shipment caught at the Dallas airport, the customs forms identified one crate with an HTS code and description for an item that was legal to export from India; the contents of the container did not match the HTS code or description and were illegal for export from India. A second crate (the second crate?) used a completely different HTS code and description, again for an item that was legal to export from India; the contents of the container did not match the second HTS code and description and was illegal for export from India.

As for the 'routed-through-Canada' stuff, where the customs forms were filled out in the name of a party other than Gibson but the wood was Gibson's (according to the party on the customs form), again a description and HTS code for items legal to export from India was used. The actual product was something illegal to export from India.

So . . . maybe India didn't know what was in the containers and relied on inaccurate customs HTS codes and descriptions? Maybe somebody at the port at India looked the other way for [insert your explanation here]? Maybe India has unofficially changed the laws on its books without telling anyone? Maybe India signed off on all of the shipments with full knowledge of what was being exported.

Again, I'm just tired of people jumping to conclusions without attempting to consider all of the facts. The more facts I can get, the better.

Nachum, I can completely understand why people would be skeptical of any - and I repeat, any - enforcement action taken by this administration.

I don't believe I would have issued a cease and desist order from what I've read. Nor would I have warned them in time for Gibson to erase hard drives.

After the Madagascar Ebony situation, the federal government had evidence of thirteen separate additional violations of the Lacey Act or laws governing the importation of exotic woods. The Dallas and Canadian incidents look . . . shady.

My own guess - which I haven't discussed in any of my posts on this subject - is that one of more disgruntled current or former Gibson employees are involved in ratting out Gibson.

In 2009, www.glassdoor.com ranked Gibson the #1 Worst Place to Work in the U.S., based on employee interviews. That was a drop from #5 Worst Place to Work in the U.S. in 2008. It's not the worst out of a small set of companies - glassdoor reviews places like United Airlines, Best Buy, Hertz, General Mills, Publix, Morgan Stanley. If you go there and read the employee comments about the company and particularly about Henry Juszkiewicz, you'll see why only 12% of Gibson's employees support him according to the study.

And given the statements on the turnover and number of executives and others fired without notice or severance, you get the idea there may be a large number of whistleblowers lurking out there.

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