I know a fair amount about the case just because I know a few people in Nashville in the legal end of the business, whom I knew many epochs back in a wildly-different context. And I work for some lawyers doing extremely boring estate money things, and a good legal foofaraw is like catnip to them. First off, except for the seething PCP dragons living in CEO Henry Juszkiewicz 's brain, there really isn't much more than meets the eye, because everything about the case has been filed in open court, available for perusal for anybody with a legal mind (and lexus-Nexis search engines) to read.
When Henry Juszkiewicz say's HE doesn't know why they're being raided, "why can't I have a day in court" blah blah, well - the case was filed against them last June and if he hasn't read his e-mail or at least tracked the watercooler chit-chat, that's his fault. I mean, come ON. What the govt. has filed on is an extensive & multi-sourced paper trail showing multiple instances of Gibson mislabeling wood, hiding it through different warehouses, e-mails specifically authorizing their employee to purchase wood illegally in Madagascar, it goes on and on, they're basically building a. racketeering case against them because they've been operating with complete immutability and scorn for he law for a long, long time - they first got raided in 1988, for pete's sakes. They're smugglers, and arrogant.
What my lawyer employers first hit on was how well-prepared and organized Juszkiewicz was. He was out on the front steps the very same day of the raid giving an impassioned speech, Gibson as freedom fighters being slaughtered on the battlefield of govt. tyranny, Fish & Game officials "secretly" whispering that he should've just had fingerboards made in Madagascar... Obama is ordering Gibson to use foreign workers! And he got Hitler & the kitchen sink in there, too. Uhhhhh... the very next day he's smoochies with Glenn Beck, 45 minutes of talking points perfectly organized and orchestrated, even though the day before he had no idea why anyone would even raid Gibson! He's done everything he can to confuse all the issues together, Madagascar doesn't have anything resembling a domestic guitar industry, that would be in INDIA Henry, where the government actually IS trying to help their workers - just like Henry looks out for his...
http://www.thegearpage.net/board/showthread.php?t=645325
Henry Juszkiewicz -
"Gibson has complied with foreign laws and believes it is innocent of any wrong doing. We will fight aggressively to prove our innocence." He also criticized the government's use of the Lacey Act because it interprets and enforces the laws of other nations.
So, is it OK to obey other country's laws or - not? We do try to maintain cordial relations with certain allies for actual reasons besides Henry 's'"approval" and enrichment. I think patriotism is a good thing, and I even think that Henry Juszkiewicz means well - for the enrichment of Gibson's shareholders. But he's so amazing - the ends justify a mean, to him - he's demonstrably lying about the facts of the case they're being charged with, and what pisses ME off is that he's trying to use patriotism, some Hollywood plot of innocent l'il corporation fighting back against the tyrannical madman Obama, just all this CRAP they made up, just to smokescreen their disdain for the law. Stop breaking the law, and Gibson's "troubles" go away. And his brainworm about the evil government coming to your house and taking YOUR guitars because you don' t have a paper documenting each wood's approved background - it is laughably retarded, IT'S NEVER HAPPENED to anybody, it's never going to happen, it's a NONEXISTING piece of nonsense - and Henry's got fat smelly guys in faded Harley t-shirts practicing the quickdraw dryfiring headshots they'll use to defend their Les Paul* against the jackbooted fascist punks of the fish & wildlife Schutzstaffel.
*(It's fake, idiot)
