Posted on 09/30/2011 7:36:58 AM PDT by Red Badger
Federal authorities are pressuring Nashville-based Gibson Guitar to hand over an additional 25 bundles of Indian wood that the company allegedly planned to use in its famous guitars.
The complaint was filed today in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee and mirrors a 2010 action that sought official forfeiture of wood obtained in a 2009 raid of Gibson facilities. The latter of those cases has been stayed, pending the outcome of the most recent suit.
As has been the case in previous allegations, at issue is the classification of certain wood imported to the United States from India. Namely, a June shipment of 1,250 sawn logs was classified as "finished parts of musical instruments," which is allowed under Indian law. In reality, according to the sworn affidavit of Fish and Wildlife Service agent Kevin Seiler, the wood was unfinished – a violation of the Lacey Act.
The Lacey Act, originally passed by Congress in 1900, was amended in 2008 as part of that year’s Farm Bill to include protection for certain wood and endangered animal species. At its core, the Lacey Act makes it illegal to import plants or wildlife into the U.S. if those goods are harvested in a way that violates the laws of another country.
In other words, because Indian workers didn’t create the final product, it’s not legally eligible to be exported.
The affidavit also outlines allegations that Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz understands the violations, as evidenced by the staunch defense of his company in a press conference and subsequent political fights around the Lacey Act.
“It is clear that Gibson understands the purpose of the Lacey Act, and understands that … fingerboard blanks are not finished fingerboards and thus Gibson is aware that its order for fingerboard blanks was an order for contraband ebony wood or ebony wood which is illegal to possess," Seiler wrote.
The CEO needs to send a check to the DNC or Obama re-election campaign and the heat will, unexpectedly, turn off. If they were raiding other guitar entities, it wouldn’t look so obvious, but, this administration doesn’t care how obvious they look; they know they will get away with it.
Where does the wood come from for a Martin guitar?
yes.
Seems to me the only one with standing to file a complaint would be India.
I have wood the feds can have!
Probable ratio of payoffs to the DNC:
Gibson’s competitors 2 DNC
-———————————— >>>> 1
Gibson 2 DNC
I think Gibson may have been getting bad workmanship and decided that the way to correct the problem under this “international labor law” was to change the specs for the thickness of the fingerboards so that they would have enough there to finish them correctly here. Acting as if this is anything but Gibson trying to keep the quality, even though it meant paying for the labor twice, is just horseshit. No regulations or laws on the “harvesting” were broken. It’s just a labor law that Gibson had to find a way around.
heh heh heh...
so glad those boys are coming back...
Back on Gibson’s case. These prople are despicable. I have heard some slight groaning from the industry over this, but we need a roar. Where are all the guitar players???
After which the Fed will probably burn them just to ensure they never get back to Gibson.
“In other words, because Indian workers didn’t create the final product...”
Only G-d can make a tree.
When do the Feds send out a mandatory recall of all Gibsons within a certain serial number range?
I wonder how they’re defining “finished” here? I’d guess these Indian fingerboard blanks are probably pretty rough, probably not much more than rough-cut rectangular slabs. So there probably is an argument to be made that they’re not finished fingerboards.
But didn’t the Indian government approve these for export? My understanding is that it was the US government interpreting “finished” more strictly than the Indians themselves.
The Unification Board has determined that the wood should be used for the bigger public good and, once confiscated, will be used to create a wood finish to the interior of Obama’s golf cart.
“I have wood the feds can have!”
They can bend over and I’ll find some wood. Blood sucking vampires....forget the stake through the heart, there are more appropriate places for a stake with all this B.S.
They’re having some kind of concert in support of Gibson this weekend in Nashville. I also heard a blurb on the radio this morning that BB King has come out in support of Gibson.
Of course, most musicians are big libs and therefore incapable of criticizing this administration.
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