Just Trying for Decent Wood

[iismet]

Federal agents swooped in on Gibson Guitar Wednesday, raiding factories and offices in Memphis and Nashville, seizing several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars. The Feds are keeping mum, but in a statement yesterday Gibson’s chairman and CEO, Henry Juszkiewicz, defended his company’s manufacturing policies, accusing the Justice Department of bullying the company. “The wood the government seized Wednesday is from a Forest Stewardship Council certified supplier,” he said, suggesting the Feds are using the aggressive enforcement of overly broad laws to make the company cry uncle.

It isn’t the first time that agents of the Fish and Wildlife Service have come knocking at the storied maker of such iconic instruments as the Les Paul electric guitar, the J-160E acoustic-electric John Lennon played, and essential jazz-boxes such as Charlie Christian’s ES-150. In 2009 the Feds seized several guitars and pallets of wood from a Gibson factory, and both sides have been wrangling over the goods in a case with the delightful name “United States of America v. Ebony Wood in Various Forms.”

http://www.infowars.com/green-police-mafia-raid-gibson-guitars/

 

[Kam]

Re: Just Trying for Decent Wood

And let the jokes about the title commence...

 

[Edgecrusher]

Re: Just Trying for Decent Wood

And let the jokes about the title commence...

That was the first thing I thought of.

Should it be opened with a Viagra joke?

 

[drpietrzak]

Re: Just Trying for Decent Wood

The issue was the feds are saying Gibson bought wood that is to be finished (according to India's laws) there before it can ship without it having been finished. It is not really about the wood per se here it is about the keeping jobs in India - it was rolled into the new wood trade treaty.

 

[Chickenwings]

Re: Just Trying for Decent Wood

heheheh.....wonder if the coppers keep a secret stash the same way the do with cocaine busts?

 

[Condemnedsoul]

Re: Just Trying for Decent Wood

Follow up story in the Memphis paper

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/aug/26/gibson-ceo-criticizes-raid-over-foreign-wood/

 

[ginormous]

Re: Just Trying for Decent Wood

Believe what you will re: guilt or innocence; this picture of Henry isn't one of his best.

 

[iismet]

Re: Just Trying for Decent Wood

Follow up story in the Memphis paper

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2011/aug/26/gibson-ceo-criticizes-raid-over-foreign-wood/

As with the latest raid, he said criminal charges have not been filed from the 2009 raid. He said the company has sworn statements and documents from the Madagascar government showing the seized wood was legally exported from that country.

...

 

[Hellion]

Re: Just Trying for Decent Wood

Sorry, I can't resist. I tried, I really did, to ignore the thread title.... My response is, "so am I, but I'm divorced, living single with a cat and it only happens in the morning."