Henry Juszkiewicz is in a tough situation. After the government discovered the use of a proxy "ultimate consignee' on the Dallas and Canadian shipments of East Indian Rosewood, and was told by Luthier Mercantile (in California and the Red Arrow warehouse in Nashville that the export, import, and customs paperwork was wrong and that Gibson was the ultimate consignee, the government submitted a sealed pleading in the civil customs case.
That suggests either that the government is preparing a criminal case to go with the thirteen-month-long civil case, or that the government is bringing in the East Indian Rosewood and perhaps some of the parties who were involved in the proxy ultimate consignee case.
Again, I think that the federal government is probably wrong on the East Indian Rosewood fretboards, but that Gibson made a legal shipment look shifty by using import paperwork that never showed Gibson's name and that incorrectly described the contents of the containers. And it's true that India's Harmonized Tariff Schedule does prohibit the export of chipped, split, or cut wood over 6mm in thickness. I just don't think that India has enforced that law. And I think the government is wrong for that reason.
Then, you have to realize that Gibson's in an interesting financial situation, suing its insurers over the Nashville flood, being sued for price-fixing in California (I don't think that suit's been dropped), being in technical default on its loans for (among other things) refusing to release audited 2008 financials. I don't know if Gibson had business interruption insurance after the flood, but it went a year without being able to produce mandolins (I bought one of the first ten to come out of the Custom Shop after they were available again; it's a beauty). If Gibson's started making banjos again, it's been within the last month, so that's something like nineteen months without banjos. And no Dobros.
Henry Juszkiewicz is in a tough situation.
Just curious. Did Juszkiewicz mention the internal Gibson email saying there being no way to obtain legal Madagascar ebony?
I don’t think so
A mandolin playing Scoutmaster....... doesn’t get much better than that
Last Friday, I attended a performance by one of the East Tennessee State blue grass groups. ETSU offers a degree in Blue grass and have 60 students declaring that major. They are simply great.