What’s Going on with the Gibson Guitar Raid? No Charges Filed by DOJ after Six Months, Team Obama Has Kept Gibson’s Wood & Equipment Worth Half a Million Dollars (video)
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on February 24, 2012
Months after the federal government raided and seized a half-million dollars worth of property and materials from two Gibson Guitar factories in Tennessee, no charges have been filed nor the confiscated materials and equipment returned
In August 2011, members of two Team Obama Goon Squads, aka Department of Homeland Security and the US Fish and Wildlife, raided the Gibson Guitar factories in Nashville and Memphis, seizing several pallets of wood, electronic files, and guitars. While it appeared at the time that the Orwellian raids of the famous guitar factories were believed to prompted by the company using illegally harvested hardwoods from protected forests, the tune being sung now by the feds has changed octaves.
The wood’s scarcity is no longer in question. Now, our government is investigating whether the wood being used by Gibson was the correct level of thickness and finish before being exported from India, and if enough Indian labor was used in the finishing of the wood before it was shipped to the USA. I kid you not.
Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican senator from Kentucky, has said what is happening to the Gibson company with the interpretation of a vague international law is a “blank check for abuse.”
It’s also been suggested that the huge problems that the government has created for Gibson would reportedly go away if Gibson were to simply stop using so much American labor in making its world-class guitars and started exporting their labor. Send scarce American jobs to other countries.
Did a shiver just crawl up your spine?
Nearly six months after the Obama administration raids, no charges have been filed against Gibson, and the materials and equipment worth a half-million dollars that the federal government seized haven’t been returned to Gibson. Tyranny never rests…
From Reason, The Great Gibson Guitar Raid: Months Later, Still No Charges Filed:
“They…come in with weapons, they seized a half-million dollars worth of property, they shut our factory down, and they have not charged us with anything,” says Gibson Guitars CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, referring to the August 2011 raid on his Nashville and Memphis factories by agents from the Departments of Homeland Security and Fish & Wildlife.
The feds raided Gibson for using an inappropriate tariff code on wood from India, which is a violation of the anti-trafficking statute known as The Lacey Act. At issue is not whether the wood in question was endangered, but whether the wood was the correct level of thickness and finish before being exported from India. “India is wanting to ensure that raw wood is not exported without some labor content from India,” says Juskiewicz.
Andrea Johnson of the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) counters that “it’s not up to Gibson to decide which laws…they want to respect.” She points out that Gibson had previously been raided under The Lacey Act for imports from Madagascar.
This much is clear: The government has yet to file any charges or allow Gibson a day in court to makes its case, much less retrieve its materials. “This is not about responsible forestry and sustainable wood or illegal logging, this is about a bureaucratic law,” argues Juszkiewicz, who testified last year before a congressional hearing convened by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.). It is, he says, “a blank check for abuse.”
The Great Gibson Guitar Raid: Months Later, Still No Charges Filed
Tina Korbe at Hot Air sheds more light on that questionable Madagascar wood violation under the Lacey Act:
Thanks to a bureaucratic U.S. law called The Lacey Act, Gibson and other importers can be criminally prosecuted by the U.S. government for violations not only of U.S. regulatory law, but also for violations of other countries’ regulatory laws. The Indian government didn’t see a reason to penalize Gibson — but Gibson’s own government did.
The Lacey Act was originally passed in the early 1900s to prevent illegal trafficking of endangered fish and wildlife, but expanded to include plant life and international trade. Over the years, it was repeatedly amended and became increasingly broader and vaguer. In the process, it turned into a perfect example of the way overregulation leads to overcriminalization.
Reason.tv recently checked in with Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz to see how the case has progressed. Turns out, the DOJ has filed no charges. That means Gibson hasn’t had its day in court to defend itself — and the government still has all that confiscated property.
Fortunately, Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul has introduced legislation to amend The Lacey Act to remove each and every mention of “foreign law” in the Act and to substitute a civil penalty system with The Lacey Act’s current criminal penalties.
More on the August raids reported by RedState:
So the government attacked them in the first place by citing obscure regulations that probably weren’t violated about importation of wood. Now they are suggesting that all these problems would go away if they simply exported their labor.
Had it simply been said in passing by an agent, one could write it off as a lone sarcastic agent, trying to push buttons. But the fact that they actually wrote it in the pleading is a level of hubris that goes well beyond over zealous law enforcement officials and passes straight into what can easily be translated as an out of control and corrupt targeting of an American corporation.
When President Obama gives his jobs speech next week, let’s hope he has an answer for why our government would want to force and coerce corporations to send jobs overseas.
Below is the August 2011 press release from the Gibson company, posted at Gibson.com — Gov’t says wood is illegal if U.S. workers produce it:
The Justice department bullies Gibson without filing charges
The Federal Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. has suggested that the use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Department’s interpretation of a law in India. (If the same wood from the same tree was finished by Indian workers, the material would be legal.) This action was taken without the support and consent of the government in India.
On August 24, 2011, around 8:45 a.m. CDT, agents for the federal government executed four search warrants on Gibson’s facilities in Nashville and Memphis and seized several pallets of wood, electronic file,s and guitars. Gibson had to cease its manufacturing operations and send workers home for the day, while armed agents executed the search warrants. Gibson has fully cooperated with the execution of the search warrants.
• Raid shut down Gibson factories and cost company money
This is the second time that federal agents have raided Gibson facilities and disrupted production – this time causing lost productivity and sales.• Wood seized was verified as FSC® Controlled Wood according to the Forest Stewardship Council™ (FSC®) Controlled Wood requirements
The wood the Government seized on August 24 is from a Forest Stewardship Council™ certified supplier and was received as FSC® Controlled Wood, meaning that the wood conforms with the FSC Controlled Wood Standards of the Forest Stewardship Council™, which is an industry-recognized and independent, not-for-profit organization established to promote responsible management of the world’s forests. FSC® Controlled Wood standards require, among other things, that the wood not be illegally harvested and not be harvested in violation of traditional and civil rights. See www.fsc.org for more information. Gibson has a long history of supporting sustainable and responsible sources of wood and has worked diligently with entities such as the Rainforest Alliance and Greenpeace to secure FSC® certified supplies. The wood seized on August 24 was evaluated to FSC® Chain of Custody Standards.• Nearly two years later, no charges have been filed
In 2009, more than a dozen agents with automatic weapons invaded the Gibson factory in Nashville. The Government seized guitars and a substantial amount of ebony fingerboard blanks from Madagascar. To date, 1 year and 9 months later, criminal charges have NOT been filed, yet the Government still holds Gibson’s property. Gibson has obtained sworn statements and documents from the Madagascar government and these materials, which have been filed in federal court, show that the wood seized in 2009 was legally exported under Madagascar law and that no law has been violated. Gibson is attempting to have its property returned in a civil proceeding that is pending in federal court.The Justice Department has asked the judge to stop the court case indefinitely.
• Information sought in raid was already made available
Since 2009, Gibson has fully cooperated with the Government’s investigation of wood and has provided substantial documentation regarding Gibson’s wood-buying activities over the years. Yet, the Federal Government raided Gibson’s facilities on August 24, 2011, without warning or communication of any kind. Had the Government simply communicated with Gibson, Gibson would have cooperated without having to stop its production and send workers home.• Not about illegal logging, not about conservation, not about the environment
The U.S. Lacey Act does not directly address conservation issues but is about obeying all laws of the countries from which wood products are procured. This law reads that you are guilty if you did not observe a law even though you had no knowledge of that law in a foreign country. The U.S. Lacey Act is only applicable when a foreign law has been violated.
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