This makes no sense. I am a woodworker and I can go down to the hardwood dealer right now and buy Ebony. It costs about the same thing as gold per ounce but I can buy it. I don’t use any tropical woods because a lot of them are harvested illegally but come on. This is ridiculous.
“When those who produce need permission from those who produce nothing, you know your country is doomed” Paraphrased from Atlas Shrugged.
Sounds like they were acting as their own importer and skipping the middle man. Whatever agency was certifying the wood at the source end, and it sure looks like it was being done in good faith, must not have met every fiddly little regulation.
I bet your dealer pays la mordida to somebody.