“The company will pay a $300,000 fine under a criminal enforcement agreement that defers prosecution for criminal violations of the Lacey Act. Another $50,000 fine will go to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation “to be used to promote the conservation, identification and propagation of protected tree species used in the musical instrument industry and the forests where those species are found.”
That’s a lotta Les Pauls, at $1K profit (probably overstating it) = 3500 guitars. And...if the evil wood is ebony, only a very few upper-end Gibson models use ebony (most use rosewood) fretboards. LP Custom, SG Custom (LP Customs only, not the LP Standards or the majority of the various down-line LP models) L-5, Super-400, not that many others)
I like how $50K goes to the NATIONAL Fish & Wildlife Foundation...as if one freaking splinter of ebony came from the US. A nice little piece of extortion. Unfortunately, the reverse protest on this issue is gonna be a little pricier than Chick-Fil-A.
I wonder about the size of the penalty relative to the corpus of the alleged violation. By that, I mean both the 2009 and the 2011 seizures amounted to something under $1 million worth of wood. (That number is entirely from memory) A bank committing money laundering, such as Wachovia and HSBC, probably pays a penalty of between 5 and 10% of the total proceeds of their crime for which they pay a penalty “without admitting guilt”. In the case of Wachovia and HSBC, the case is closed. Yet in the case of Gibson, the article says prosecution is DEFERRED in exchange for Gibson paying ONE THIRD the corpus of the violation. Deferred = delayed. Huh? You mean, the DOJ can pull this out of its hat again at some unknown future time?
Most of the money will find itself to the Obama campaigne I predict.