from my cold dead fingers... 
Posted on 04/12/2012 12:39:01 PM PDT by NoLibZone
t was seven months ago that federal agents with guns drawn raided the Gibson guitar factories in Nashville and Memphis. A half million dollars worth of Indian rosewood and ebony was seized under the premise that it had been imported illegally. The feds also took a number of guitars and computer hard drives. The factory was shut down for the day and employees told to go home.
Yet after all this time, the Department of Justice has shown no sign that it will file criminal charges against Gibson. What’s more – it has been almost 3 years since federal agents first raided Gibson (November 2009), seizing a quantity of wood from Madagascar. No decision on criminal charges in that case either.
Meantime, the DOJ has blocked a civil court case in which Gibson was appealing to get its wood back while the criminal investigation proceeds. Or doesn’t.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
I think the last article I read on here about it said that the wood is Indian.
This doesn't have anything to do with the wood itself.
One piece of wood has drilled holes and one doesn't. One of them is against the law.
It could be either the body or the neck, from what I can remember the first article didn’t specify which it was.
Its on the neck somewhere.
If the neck then where it bolts on to the body. Or it could be the tuning machines.
In it's own way, the conservative reporting on these cases has been as inaccurate and as designed to point to only one side as the media's reporting in the Zimmerman/Martin case.
The government brought civil forfeiture actions with respect to each seizuer. The first: U.S. v. Ebony Wood in Various Forms, Case No. 3:10-cv-00747 (U.S. Dist. Ct., Mid. Dist. Tenn.). The second. U.S. v. 25 Bundles of Indian Ebony Wood, Case No. 3:11-cv-00913 (U.S. Dist. Ct., Mid. Dist. Tenn.)
It's not even clear in the second case that the wood belongs to Gibson. It was imported by Luthier Mercantile International, the import paperwork didn't name Gibson as the ultimate consignee or importer, LMI is the party that changed the Hamonized Schedule Code on the wood after it was exported from India, LMI is the party that put the inaccurate description of the wood on the shipping cartons, Theodor Nagel Gmbh (an affiliate of LMI) was shown as the ultimate consignee on the paperwork for shipment to the Red Arrow warehouse in Nashville, Gibson never paid for the wood, and Luthier Mercantile filed a claim for the wood in the civil forfeiture action as well as Gibson.
And you'll note that after all of the screaming in the media (and by Gibson) about "East Indian Rosewood", there's no East Indian Rosewood involved in the forfeiture from the second raid.
This is sort of like being caught as an underage kid with a beer by a cop and being forced to pour it out - then screaming "I didn't do anything wrong! I only had to pour the beer out! They never arrested me! See! I clearly didn't engage in underaged drinking, because I only had to pour the beer out for underaged drinking, and they never arrested me for underaged drinking!"
It wouldn’t be the entire neck ,, too expensive ... it is probably the top layer the strings contact ... rosewood is like iron ,, very hard .. it would resist abrasion from metal strings well.
May I add, that their families should also be left penniless. The people doing this raid are sadistic. They would probably laugh if the families of Gibson were thrown on the street.
Many in our government at all levels are carrying truly evil deeds. They are vile human beings.
The first involved Madagascar ebony. Gibson really doesn't want you to talk about that one, because they might have to talk about the emails from Gibson employee Gene Nix, who spent 2-1/2 weeks on the ground in Madgascar in June 2008 and reported that all legal exports were prohibited, or the internal Gibson reports seized by the government. Nix even toured the 'factory' of Roger Thunam, who had been convicted of lumber trafficking, and reported that Thunam's lumber was under seizure by the Malagasy government. Later, Gibson bought from Thunam through a German company called Theodor Nagel Gmbh. The feds were alerted that Nagel was importing illegal wood. Nagel's imports led to Gibson.
Try this post for a more complete explanation of the first raid: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2835308/posts?page=37#37
The material in question is used for fingerboards.
Well I guess Gibson Guitars should have donated to the Obama campaign.
But they are in luck: it’s another Presidential election. :) Open the checkbook and give, give, give. :)
No. No. Henry Juszkiewicz may not donate politically (he's only made two political contributions since 1990 - one to a Republican and one to a Democrat), but he's a major, major liberal supporter. Dave Berryman doesn't appear anywhere on the radar screen. Those two own Gibson.
Henry J. and Gibson are early members of the Clinton Global Initiative. When the Clinton White House was for sale, Gibson bought the whole thing out for a concert for Bill Clinton. The MTV Rock the Vote (let me repeat that: MTV Rock the Vote) then honored Bill Clinton (and Barack Obama)? Henry J. was a presenter that year.
He's a founding member of the Rainforest Alliance, which warns of Global Warming.
He sponsors the John Lennon educational bus program.
He's involved in a program that does poetry jams for diversity, and other major diversity programs.
Henry J. is not now and has never been a conservative. He's a flaming liberal and has always been one. His money goes to liberal causes.
What had happened was the mailers had gone bankrupt and their assets were sold off to other mailers. This guy thought he could transfer the old deficiencies (that'd been unpaid) to the new owners of the equipment.
He refused to understand that bankruptcy stood in the way of any collection!
The appeals from those cases had sat around another office for a number of years because every time anyone called the originator he'd get mad and call the big boss.
That one idiot had "buffaloed" a serious chunk of our functional area by screaming and shouting.
I have a feeling the Gibson case(s) have someone like that in the background and no one wants to let him get crosswise in their alimentary canal!
Yes, because it has nothing to do with the 'kind' of wood. Generally, it has to do with the form in which the wood is in when it is imported and the harmonized schedule code used to import the wood.
And in the case of this import, it involved a company called Luthier Mercantile International changing the HS code on the wood (twice) after it was exported, mislabeling the wood, listing an incorrect ultimate consignee on the import papers, failing to file Lacey Act paperwork, shipping additional wood into Nashville through Canada in the name of LMI with an advance email telling the warehouse that the customs paperwork didn't name the true ultimate consignee of the wood, and more.
Gibson hadn't paid for any of the wood, and LMI's the party with direct fingerprints on all of the improper actions, which is why LMI also filed a claim in the civil forfeiture action, because the wood may belong to LMI and not Gibson.
However, all of those intentional actions of LMI in changing the HS codes, listing false consignees, and such, makes the imported item (the wood) contraband under the law. Nobody wants to hear that, because we all hate Obama so much that the "Obama's after Gibson" story angers us so much more. And it's nice to be mad at Obama.
With mother of pearl and abalone inlays!
from my cold dead fingers...
It's the fingerboard. (BTW, Gibson doesn't bolt their necks on, they glue them.)
That’s got to be One great Basemnt Bar Top. lol
Seizing property without due process has become the norm in this country. Sad.
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