Bizarre, Criminal law, Environment, International

Gibson Guitar Raided For Possible Lacey Act Violations . . . Again

Gibson Guitars are some of the best known instruments in the business. However, the company could soon make some interesting law as well after it was raided by federal agents investigating possible violations of the Lacey Act, the law barring the illegal trade in wildlife, fish, and plants. The company is being investigated for the allegedly unlawful importation of sawn ebony logs from India. This is the second time in two years that the company has been accused of Lacey Act violations.


In November 2009, federal agents seized guitars and fingerboard blanks that were allegedly made from illegally harvested Madagascan rosewood and ebony. Last week the agents seized several pallets of wood, electronic files and guitars. From a Reuters report the latest raid is related to a shipment of sawn ebony logs from India that was imported by Gibson illegally, violating the Lacey Act.

Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz insists that the raid is simply because the wood was finished in the United States and is based on Indian law being enforced in the U.S. The company released a press statement saying “The Federal Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. has suggested that the use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Department’s interpretation of a law in India.”

The Lacey Act does enforce the laws of other countries to prevent companies from using the United States for trafficking in illegal goods. Ironically, the Act was originally passed to stop the destructive sale of our own domestic resources (particularly bird feathers) but has become a law protecting the natural areas of other nations from the same threat. The Lacey Act (16 U.S.C. §§ 3371–3378) was the brainchild of Iowa Rep. John F. Lacey, who wanted to block the trade in wildlife, fish, and plants that have been illegally taken, transported or sold. It was signed into law by President William McKinley on May 25, 1900.

Thus, it is not in anyway odd for the U.S. to enforce the law of another country. Moreover, the affidavit below claims a series of false or misleading statements in the documentation related to this shipment. The agent details what is alleged to be “fraudulently” labeled wood that is an attempt to evade an Indian ban on exports of unfinished wood.

The affidavit below details what is a classic Lacey Act violation with both the content of the shipment and the recipient. Regardless of Juszkiewicz’s politics, this shipment would have been flagged based on these allegations.

It does appear that, if the wood were finished in India, this might not be a violation under Indian law. Moreover, it is the type of violation that can easily occur if you do not use a local attorney to verify such questions. However, it is also true that companies often claim ignorance of local laws will supporting unlawful shipments of wood and other items. The point is that purchasing companies are equally responsible when they import unlawful goods. In my view, the 2009 allegations, detailed in one of the articles below, present a more serious concern in the importation of the wood from Madagascar — an area that has been ravaged by illegal harvesting and corruption.

Conservative bloggers and radio hosts have suggested that this is political retribution for Juszkiewicz’s support of conservative candidates. Gibson appears to be fueling the political allegation with Twitter postings to conservatives.

One report says that either Juszkiewicz or the company is warning that people who now have Gibson Guitars could see their instruments seized by the government. It is a clever tact to work up citizens but it is highly unlikely. It is true that purchase or possession of unlawful material is prohibited under Lacey. The act makes it unlawful for any person to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire, or purchase any fish or wildlife or plant taken, possessed, transported, or sold in violation of any law, treaty, or regulation of the United States or in violation of any Indian tribal law whether in interstate or foreign commerce. Yet, it is rare to see actions taken against individual owners of prior sold products like a guitar. The focus of enforcement is on those in the stream of commerce, particularly shippers, manufacturers, and retailers.

Juszkiewicz objects that his employees are being treated like “drug dealers” though his own relations with his employees may need from fine tuning. The company has also been named in 2009 as the number one “worst to work for” in a survey by glassdoor.com.

Here is the statement of the Federal Agent: 20110819154237897

For a good discussion of the history of the two cases, click here and here

76 thoughts on “Gibson Guitar Raided For Possible Lacey Act Violations . . . Again”

  1. HenMan,

    Maybe you can lend Obama a KaZoo….at least he can try and lead….Not doing to good in my opinion….I am sorely disappointed in his cowing to the Boy of Orange….He got upstaged and his “talk” to congress will be on a Thursday the first day of the new football season….Not on Wednesday the day of the GOP Circus….

  2. Thanks for explaining this! I thought it was another DOJ clusterfuck.. but I support this act if it will reduce environmental havoc.

  3. I guess Obama’s DOJ is making it easier for Gibson to simply move their operations abroad. I hope not.

    HenMan – clever comment, and clever handle.

  5. 1. Regarding busting people with existing instruments, knife handles, etc: it is very, very difficult to non-destructively identify types of wood, so it would be very difficult to “screen” items for potential illicit wood. In the real world, a lot of wood, as logs or rough-sawn, and particularly in smaller quantities, simply gets re-labled. It’s a big problem for people who need particular types of wood, such as high quality teak for boat building, or need to match existing wood in antique furniture repair or building restoration. Unless you’ve got a supplier with a really solid chain of custody from the forest to your jobsite/workshop, it’s a crapshoot what you’re going to get when you try to buy “such-and-such mahogany” or the like.

    Gibson guitars, on the other hand, in order to deter counter-fitting of these multi-hundred, and often multi-thousand, dollar items, have serial numbers and other identifying marks. Theoretically, someone could go through Gibson’s records to identify a series of Les Paul serial numbers that used the “illegal” wood, and say, “from x to y were made with illegal wood, turn ’em in!” From a political and practical sense, though, this seems very unlikely! (at worst, I could see them pulling unsold units from warehouses and unsold stock in stores, with Gibson on the hook for the wholesale cost.)

    2. Gibson is playing with fire if they publicly link themselves to right-wing politics. The value of guitars (and brands) is based in a lot of fuzzy, subjective perceptions and waxes and wanes over time. Gibson is currently riding high in brand perception, but like all things, this too shall pass. There a lots of conservatives who play music (i.e. evangelical church band members or Ted Nugent-types) and lots of middle-aged guys who can afford a $2,400 guitar and don’t care about the company’s politics or working conditions. But there’s also a big slice of the musician market where they risk making themselves very un-cool – either from liking themselves to lame, old, religious, racist, rich dudes (the antithesis of “rock ‘n roll”) or from failing to be at least a little “green.”

  6. President Obama should have some expertise in this area, since the Republicans have been playing him like a banjo for 2 3/4 years.

  8. In answer to some of the commenters above, and as I recall, Federal wildlife laws are based on either the Property clause, the Interstate Clause, or the Treaty making powers spelled out in our Constitution; therein lies your answer.

    As for Gibson, it appears that they have a big mens rea problem, since they had a prior in 2009; perhaps that’s why their spokesman has turned this into a political campaign in lieu of arguing the legal facts…

    Our Federal wildlife laws are a reflection that our Nation places of the value of “life.” As to those of you who always have to disparage the enforcement of wildlife laws, it always reminds me of an old Coptic saying: “Life is life, and fun is fun, but it’s all so quite when the goldfish dies.” Shame on you.

  9. Pingback: DOJ Advises Gibson Guitar to Export Labor to Madagascar. » Kallsign Snoopys Doghouse

  10. Somewhere around here I have a half-dozen knife handle blanks in different kinds of exotic woods. I bought them from a cutler supply dealer twenty-five or so years ago and never got around to using them to make knives. Does this mean I have to worry about a SWAT team using a battering ram on my shop door?

  11. There may be a really interesting constitutional challenge here.

    The Supremacy Clause states that;

    “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every state shall be bound thereby, anything in the constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding.”

    The Lacey Act is not a treaty. Which leaves us with the question; does Congress have the power to enact into law, the laws of other countries, that are not contained in a treaty? Also, do the courts have the authority to interpret the laws of another nation and apply them upon the citizens of this country?

  13. I don’t know… maybe my priorities are all wrong but, given what is and isn’t getting done… aren’t there bigger fish…???

    Blouise 1, September 1, 2011 at 9:53 am

    Oh boy, I better check my cello … there’s all kinds of exotic material involved

    🙂 (I’d love to hear you play… Something on YT, perhaps? )

    ————————

    (AY, regarding “fugitive woods”… 🙂 )

    ————————

    “You never know when the “jack booted thugs” will be knocking at your…” -Mark

    Yep. But sometimes, they don’t bother to knock…

  14. Since CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) is an international agreement between governments and Gibson is not a government, I’m not sure what it means to say that Gibson is a “part of” CITES.

  15. I thought that Gibson was part of CITES (agreement to not harvest endangered woods). Also be sure to check out your fine furniture and floors for these woods–guitar makers use a small fraction of these sought after woods. You never know when the “jack booted thugs” will be knocking at your…

  17. Oh boy, I better check my cello … there’s all kinds of exotic material involved.

  18. “The Federal Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. has suggested that the use of wood from India that is not finished by Indian workers is illegal, not because of U.S. law, but because it is the Justice Department’s interpretation of a law in India.”

    ************

    How can a law be enforced outside of the country that it was not originally intended for….Are they enforcing other treaty’s….or selectively choosing which ones to enforce…Unless specifically asked by the Indian Government why are we doing this again…Oh yeah because we can….

    Lets see the 4th has no applicability outside of the US right…So, if they are doing this then I expect to see the heads of Citibank being tried in the US under RICO…they were one of the main causes of the financial market collapse….they moved billions of assets outside of the US to offshore banks before the domino’s feel…

  19. As noted here:

    The statute also makes it unlawful to make or submit any false record or label of any plant.

    If the wood was finished in India, there would have been no fraudulent labeling. As pointed out in a Reuters article:

    The paperwork accompanying the shipment identified it fraudulently as Indian ebony fingerboards for guitars and it did not say it was going to Gibson, the affidavit said.

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