Six months after the Obama administration raided Gibson Guitar, stole their inventory, and shut their factory down, no charges have been filed by Homeland Security or USFWS.
"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.
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.
It's worth noting that there is no evidence of violation of the Endangered Species Act, nor in fact any evidence of violation whatsoever: the feds have spent six months supposedly assessing whether or not the wood that they stole from Gibson is of "the correct thickness and finish". That's some fine police work there, Lou.
I wonder if Les Paul is behind this.
Posted by: g... | February 24, 2012 at 08:19 PM
Nope; he's dead.
(I hear MO doesn't like guitar music.)
Posted by: Sam L. | February 25, 2012 at 08:34 AM