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Gibson Facilities Raided by Law Enforcement Officials

Gabriel J. Hernandez

Federal agents and local police this afternoon conducted a raid at one of the Gibson Guitar’s Nashville manufacturing facilities, seizing a number of guitars, computers, files and wood used in the manufacturer of the company’s guitars.
Nashville, TN (November 17, 2009) – Agents with the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and Nashville police conducted a raid at Gibson's corporate headquarters and one of its Nashville manufacturing facilities this afternoon. Various news agencies report a number of guitars, computers, files and wood used in the manufacture of the company’s guitars were seized.

According to Andrew Ames, a spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Justice, a search warrant was executed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Department of Homeland Security. According to the Nashville Post, the raid was conducted by a combination of federal agents and local police who are investigating the company for violating the Lacey Act, an environment law that makes it illegal to import endangered species of rosewood from Madagascar. As of this posting, it is not clear which Gibson manufacturing facility was the target of the raid—either Gibson USA or Gibson Custom. Both facilities are approximately one mile from each other in a warehouse district just south of downtown Nashville.

On its website, the Nashville Post is citing “sources” that have indicated Gibson was “…involved in a scheme that shipped the wood from Madagascar to Germany and then to the United States.” The Nashville Post report also states that charges against the company have yet to be filed.

Premier Guitar obtained the following statement directly from Gibson:

“Today Gibson Guitar is fully cooperating with agents of the United States Fish & Wildlife Service as it pertains to an issue with harvested wood. Gibson is a chain of custody certified buyer who purchases wood from legal suppliers who are to follow all standards. Gibson Guitar Chairman and CEO sits on the board of the Rainforest Alliance and takes the issue of certification very seriously. The company will continue to cooperate fully and assist our federal government with all inquiries and information.”

The Tennessean is reporting that Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz is taking a temporary leave of absence from the Rainforest Alliance until the matter was resolved, ""to avoid conflict or distraction."

Additional updates will be posted on premierguitar.com as needed.

     

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Comments

 (86 comments) display by
UsernameComment
bwyou812
on 01/24/2010 		simply said, with all the technology today, Gibson
does not make a guitar worth the money they are
asking And they know it.. Company is just profiting on reisues,sigature models(which I would rather see
my own name)on my guitar than someone elses due to
style and color they have(bullshit markup!)Many
companies can match thier quality and sell more
reasonable to the musican.But many still feel it's
power to own A Gibson like owning that expensive
car!!!! Come down on your ridiculous prices and
you would let in volume and still make a good profit
and they won't have to lay off more workers like they just most recently did again. Another 20% of
thier work force got thier pink slips.
Gary Baker
on 01/06/2010 		I agree with Leif Eddy. Why not grow your own Tree's as a renewable rotating forest ? How about planting a tree for every guitar sold ? Simple solutions for major problems.
EuroX
on 01/02/2010 		A raid on an american company is not that uncommon.
You need to understand, in the United States you cannot
knowingly purchase Mada.rosewood, yet in Germany you can.
Think about it, so germans can and we can't. If you do or do not agree with that law than move to germany. If the U.S is not good enough for you, and you think that it is our governemtn and NOT GIBSON, I beg to differ. You may very well need to leave the U.S and do us a favor rather than complian about people here who break the laws.
Some of you would say leave Madoff alone, just because you do not have a 401k and did not have the money to lose.
Yet, for a company to take a wood that is on an endagered list, simular to the list animals go on, just to try to make a historic guitar, you think we have a bad Governement.
How can you even make such an ignorant conclusion?
I think any company or person should be held responsible for thier actions. If you do not, please do the U.S a favor and get out, the sooner the better.
Tmurph
on 01/02/2010 		I agree with MR. moose, what is it with you all thinking we have an evil Government because Gibson is finally being held responsible for it behaviour. What about evil Gibson?
It is not about your opinions on preservation or lack of preservation, it is really about a company that continues to expliot rescources. Including it's employees, it's customers, including the store owners who sell the items.
If you owned a store and had just two of the last 10 of their new guitars, like dark fire, johny winter sig. robot ,or any other of the ones that end up in the blowout section of online retailers for up to 70% off retail Brand NEW, you are stuck with those items why you paid 60% of the retail price.
Think about getting stuck with a guitar that sold for $9999.99, that went to the "deal of the day" brand new for $2999.99, do the math, Gibson's time is probably limited.
If not for the Les Paul, which gibson did not even invent, I do not think there would be a gibson today.
Sadly, I have some gibsons I truely love. Yet with the guitars I see on the shelf now, I am glad I got them before they chose to cut wood and corners.
Leif Eddy
on 12/27/2009 		My comment is about the real problem. This is just another ploy from the tree huggers to get back at Gibson. How about stopping countries from burning down their forests? At least there was something constructinve done with the wood. I have a J-45 Rosewood acoustic, which is the finest acoustic I've ever owned in the last 43 years of playing. Gee whiz, am I going to have to hide my guitar? Wood is a renewable resource. Why not try growing them elsewhere? As for the argument between Rosewood and Maple fingerboards: Rosewood is a porous wood as maple is not. Whith maple fingerboards, you have to change your string way too much. I've never heard of a Chinese Gibson that wasn't a bootleg. What's that all about anyway.
David Vee
on 12/21/2009 		Let me think about this - we are at war, Osama Bin Laden is still at large, terror cells try to operate in the US, and the US Gov't wastes taxpayer money to track down alleged illegal rosewood imports? At least Madagascar will not be harvested by a US company. Right. Did anyone tell any other countries to stay out of those rain forests? Somehow, I doubt it. If the allegations are true, the net result is that a few thousand board-feet of rosewood out of a hundred-million-plus board-feet of forest gets saved, Gibson raises its prices/closes its US factories to cover the fines, and we get to pay more for inferior wood? We get screwed by Gov't policies as taxpayers and as guitarists. Nice. At least Madagascar gets protected by my taxpayer dollars. Hey, maybe a concert for Madagascar, too. I can hear it now - we are the wood... we are the forests... we are the wood that makes a better sound, so lets start paying...
J. Baxter Goode
on 11/30/2009 		Gibson has an international presence, with factories in a number of other countries, including China. It is unreasonable to assume that an organization as large and internationaly spread, wouldn't break a few US laws, even if it were unintentional. I have played Les Pauls made in China by Gibson, that were virtually indistinguishable from previous US made, unless you are an absolute expert. Some Chinese-made LPs even have double acting truss rods and several technical advances that US made LPs have yet to incorporate, presumably due to cost and the "purity" mentality of some collectors.
sam
on 11/25/2009 		tonehead, my apologies for any missunderstanding. i don't own a heritage myself, but i've played them at my local guitar shop. as far as knowing their status financially i'm not sure.
Tonehead
on 11/25/2009 		Well sam - Thankfully, I did not drop $2500 on a new gibby, I was just trying to make a point - but I agree & mistakenly left heritage out of my initial post (along with a lot of other great builds) - they are wonderful guitars. Are they still in trouble up there in Kalamazoo? I sure hope not.
sam
on 11/25/2009 		tonehead,you should have dropped that $2500.00 on a Heritage guitar. then you would have had a real gibson.



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