Gibson Factories Raided last week
RogueEagle91
Regular
LINK
Further findings on my part:
What the above can mean to you:
As some of you may have seen, yes, I had an interview with Gibson about a month ago. I have made sure there isn't a hiring freeze, thought it would appear everything's going to be backed up for a while.
I'm not happy about this on many levels. For one, this was nowhere near as necessary as the raid 2 years ago over Madagascar ebony. For two, many other manufacturers use the same supplier as Gibson, if not getting supplied from the same region. However, not one, including Fender, Martin, or PRS have gotten raided. I smell some sort of political bullshit going on here.
edit: btw, I figured IFIOTW would be the best place for this, but feel free to move it accordingly.
Federal authorities conducted simultaneous raids at Gibson Guitar offices and factories in Nashville and Memphis on Wednesday in the latest of a series of legal woes to strike the legendary guitar maker.
Gibson has been the subject of an ongoing federal lawsuit and a separate investigation into whether it illegally imported endangered ebony woods to use in its sought-after instruments.
Federal agents were tight-lipped about the reason for Wednesday’s raids — the second in two years — or what they yielded.
“We can’t get into specifics right now,” said Nicholas Chavez, special agent in charge with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which conducted the raids along with agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “This is an ongoing investigation.”
Further findings on my part:
After further investigation, the property seizure is several pallets of Indian rosewood and ebony (along with hard drives with info pertinent to the ordering of the wood). Though there have been no official charges, the Lacey Act is sited as justification for the seizure. Under one of the act's more recent amendments, lumber cannot be imported from protected forests (derp) or through illegal methods from the country of origin. Indian law prohibits raw lumber from being exported, in an effort to keep lumber processing jobs in India. However, authorities in India have yet to press charges against Gibson's lumber supplier.
What the above can mean to you:
For any other guitar enthusiasts out there, this has some heavy repercussions on any border crossing you might be doing with a guitar. Especially in the case of an instrument with exotic woods, it's becoming more and more vital to have documentation of where and when the wood was harvested, to ensure it was legally. So, yes. If you get the wrong border guard, you can have your guitar confiscated if you don't have all the info. What a crock of shit.
As some of you may have seen, yes, I had an interview with Gibson about a month ago. I have made sure there isn't a hiring freeze, thought it would appear everything's going to be backed up for a while.
I'm not happy about this on many levels. For one, this was nowhere near as necessary as the raid 2 years ago over Madagascar ebony. For two, many other manufacturers use the same supplier as Gibson, if not getting supplied from the same region. However, not one, including Fender, Martin, or PRS have gotten raided. I smell some sort of political bullshit going on here.
edit: btw, I figured IFIOTW would be the best place for this, but feel free to move it accordingly.