G-men raid Gibson
DGDevin
Gibson guitars raided in federal rosewood investigation
Leading global guitar maker Gibson says it is co-operating with US federal
agents following a raid on its Nashville factory as part of an investigation
into use of endangered rainforest wood.
US Fish & Wildlife Service agents descended on Gibson's Massman Drive
factory on Tuesday under the US Lacey Act, which was recently updated to
criminalise the import of illegally felled wood, including sawn timber and
joinery products. Wood, instruments and files are thought to have been
removed by agents.
Rosewood from Madagascar is believed to be under investigation.
Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, a board member of the Rainforest Alliance,
stepped down from the group following the raid.
"Gibson Guitar makes every effort to ensure that all its wood purchases are
legal and is also working to increase the amount of wood purchased from
certified sources, including FSC-certified wood," the company said in a
statement.
"The company will continue to co-operate fully and assist our federal
government with all inquiries and information."
Rosewood is prized among guitar makers as a prime tonewood (used primarily
in back and sides of guitars) and is sourced from many countries, including
India, Brazil, Madagascar and Honduras.
Gibson is part of Greenpeace's MusicWood Coalition, along with rival guitar
makers Taylor and Martin, which seeks to increase the availability of
traditional woods used by instrument makers that can be FSC-certified.
The Sicker Vicar
Rosewood back and sides?
The Sicker Vicar
Aren't they talking about mahogany?
JoeSpareBedroom
news:0380245a-c3d9-4903...@33g2000vbe.googlegroups.com...
===========
Journalists also like to talk about "automatic pistols", which almost nobody
has. Be happy that you can process information more accurately than they can
sometimes.
Derek Tearne
> Aren't they talking about mahogany?
That depends on which story you read. Some say rosewood, some say 'hard
maple, mahogany and muira piranga' - some say madagascar, some say
honduras.
Gibson, on their website, refer to 'an issue with wood procurement'.
I suspect we will have to wait until actual charges have been laid (or
not) before anyone will have the answer.
--- Derek
--
Derek Tearne - de...@url.co.nz
Vitamin S - improvisation from Aotearoa/New Zealand
http://www.vitamin-s.co.nz/
Tim
But until then, the article states: "Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, a
board member of the Rainforest Alliance,stepped down from the group
following the raid."
Now why would a good 'ol boy like Henry bail, especially right after
the feds walk in? Something tells me this move was done under legal
advisement.
hmmmm,
Jim Carr
> But until then, the article states: "Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, a
> board member of the Rainforest Alliance,stepped down from the group
> following the raid."
>
>
> Now why would a good 'ol boy like Henry bail, especially right after
> the feds walk in? Something tells me this move was done under legal
> advisement.
>
> hmmmm,
He said it was to avoid any conflict of interest. Makes sense to me.
--
Write a wise saying and your name will live forever.
- Anonymous
Derek Tearne
> But until then, the article states: "Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, a
> board member of the Rainforest Alliance,stepped down from the group
> following the raid."
>
> Now why would a good 'ol boy like Henry bail, especially right after
> the feds walk in? Something tells me this move was done under legal
> advisement.
It could also be simply the right thing to do. Stepping down from a
board such as this when the suggestion of impropriety hangs over a
member is not unprecedented.
Now it he'd *resigned* from the board, that would be a different thing.
js
If anyone thinks that enforcing a ban on rainforest wood imports that only
affects certain niche manufacturers is gonna stop ONE bulldozer from plowing
through the Amazon for FARMING or DEVELOPMENT purposes, then I have some
Brooklyn Bridge carbon credits to sell them...
/[me]duck and cover
"Derek Tearne" <de...@url.co.nz> wrote in message
news:1j9hefl.quq9ar1gzcoo2N%de...@url.co.nz...
Derek Tearne
> This whole thing is as dopey as global warming if you ask me.
Global warming is dopey in what way? Dopey in that it isn't real, or
dopey in that our efforts to stop it are way too late, futile and fly in
the face of human nature. Global warming is far from dopey - on the
other hand attempting to find a market driven solution seems like asking
the foxes to run security for the henhouse.
> If anyone thinks that enforcing a ban on rainforest wood imports that only
> affects certain niche manufacturers is gonna stop ONE bulldozer from plowing
> through the Amazon for FARMING or DEVELOPMENT purposes, then I have some
> Brooklyn Bridge carbon credits to sell them...
However, if the people with the bulldozers can get a *higher* price by
carefully managing the forest and selling those timbers to the niche
manufacturers for a whopping profit they aren't going to bulldoze the
whole rainforest to make land to grow staple foods.
That's one of the goals of the rainforest alliance.
And if they only get those whopping prices as long as other folks aren't
dealing in black market timber they might even self police the trade.
Might work, probably won't.
Doesn't mean it shouldn't be tried.
Tim
Jim, and that's a point well made. however the way I look at the
situation is if its a conflict after the raid, then it was before the
raid and Henry should have been aware of that an shouldn't have taken
the position anyhow.
YMMV.
JoeSpareBedroom
> js <not...@nothing.com> wrote:
>
>> This whole thing is as dopey as global warming if you ask me.
>
> Global warming is dopey in what way? Dopey in that it isn't real, or
> dopey in that our efforts to stop it are way too late, futile and fly in
> the face of human nature. Global warming is far from dopey - on the
> other hand attempting to find a market driven solution seems like asking
> the foxes to run security for the henhouse.
>
You don't trust corporations? Why do you hate America and our soldiers?
(Sorry - I had to include the sub-75-IQ second question because it's funny
and I haven't seen it around newsgroups for a couple of years.)
Derek Tearne
> On Nov 20, 9:26 pm, Jim Carr <newsgro...@azwebpages.com> wrote:
> > Tim wrote:
> > > But until then, the article states: "Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz, a
> > > board member of the Rainforest Alliance,stepped down from the group
> > > following the raid."
> >
> > > Now why would a good 'ol boy like Henry bail, especially right after
> > > the feds walk in? Something tells me this move was done under legal
> > > advisement.
> >
> > > hmmmm,
> >
> > He said it was to avoid any conflict of interest. Makes sense to me.
>
> Jim, and that's a point well made. however the way I look at the
> situation is if its a conflict after the raid, then it was before the
> raid and Henry should have been aware of that an shouldn't have taken
> the position anyhow.
This depends entirely on whether any actual impropriety has occured, and
if so whether or not Henry knew about it.
As soon as Gibson was raided Henry would feel obliged to stand down
until the allegations were cleared up. This remains true even if he
believes every splinter of wood in the factory is kosher.
If Henry has know for years that they've been sneaking in wood of dodgy
provenance then yes - absolutely - he should never have taken the
position.
If it turns out everyone else in the factory knew about it except Henry,
but he knows now, then he should resign.
If no one knows exactly what the G-men are looking for, or how it may
have come to be in the Gibson factory (eg. the papers on everything
appear to Gibson to be legit, but the G-men believe some to be
forgeries) then standing down until it is cleared up and Gibson can be
demonstrated to be squeeky clean again is the right thing to do.
Hawkeye
Global warming is far from dopey
>
> --- Derek
>
> --
> Derek Tearne - de...@url.co.nz
> Vitamin S - improvisation from Aotearoa/New Zealandhttp://www.vitamin-s.co.nz/
Please cite your sources....I wonder how many illegals (on road crews
and construction jobs) these agents drove by en route to this
raid...Talk about misplaced priorities...
Hawk
Jim Carr
> Jim, and that's a point well made. however the way I look at the
> situation is if its a conflict after the raid, then it was before the
> raid and Henry should have been aware of that an shouldn't have taken
> the position anyhow.
> YMMV.
I'm not sure why you see it that way. The way I see it they were a
*potential* consumer of the materials in question, but the head honcho
professed not to use those materials. He helped run a group that was
working to keep those materials from being used. That's exactly the kind
of cooperation that the group wants. It gives them the "moral authority"
to condemn others who claim they need those materials for economic
reasons. That's not a conflict - that's an advantage.
When his company got accused of using those materials, he stepped down
so that the group could not be accused of protecting one of their own in
any comments they make about the situation. To me that is a stand-up way
of doing things.
How do you see it?
Tim
Jim I've already explained how I see it and maybe i had a knee-jerk
reaction to the situation, but by reading the article[s], this is the
stance I took. now granted, I'm really not that buisness savvy anyhow
and don't claim to be.
Simplistically speaking, I see that
Gibson is suspect of using illegal wood.
Henry is the CEO of Gibson.
Henry should know what wood Gibson uses
Henry is also CEO of an environmental "fight illegal woods"
organization.
Feds examine Gibson
Henry immediately steps down from the environmental group. kinda like
"dont' look at me, I'm not taking the fall for anyone"
I come to this conclusion that it may be like a local doper in my area
who was cooking meth. He had all kinds of "SAY NO TO DRUGS!" type
stickers on his car. He thought this would protect him some how, I
suppose with the notion that he felt that no cop would bust him on
appearance of being on an anti-drug campaign thus proving he was an up
standing citizen.
I know, I'm jumping the gun before evidence is truly manifest, and i
know that the raid may find nothing, and *could* have been been
sparked by a disgruntled employee or competitor or vendor.
So, I guess we won't know, until we know.
Derek Tearne
Tim
DGDevin
"Tim" <tsch...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:aab232ec-2b5b-4465...@x15g2000vbr.googlegroups.com...
> Anybody know of any follow up in this story?
The usual procedure with a corporation under investigation is as follows:
1) Investigators serve search warrant and file charges, 2) Lawyers rack up
billable hours for a couple of years, 3) Company does a deal, pays fine
without admitting wrongdoing. And the dance begins again....
Tim
> "Tim" <tschna...@gmail.com> wrote in message
My wife works for a large corp. . Maybe that's why she likes Dilbert
so much!