seized in the first raid. we reached out to the department of justice which pointed out that admission of criminal wrongdoing on gibson s part but officials declined to speak with us about it. they deferred to u.s. fish and wildlife which led the investigation. they declined to speak with us about the raid as well. we just wanted to bury the situation. that s what it took to get the government off of back, okay. today gibson is back to producing instruments as it always had but is using extra caution in purchasing its overseas wood. somebody chose us for some reason and there was no good reason to choose gibson. we were harassed, goods were seized, our business, you know, was injured. we had to pay lawyers. as for the controversial indian wood, the government eventually determined that gibson indeed purchased it
gibson s door. mid morning i get a call that homeland security was raiding our fact tri. the ceo, a musician himself, has been running the company since 1986. i thought it was a joke because, you know, homeland security raiding a guitar fact trijust makes no sense. armed federal agencies showed up at gibson s headquarters and their factory two miles away. the supervisor was on site that day. the agents came in and told us to back away from our desks. and i kind of vividly remember, you know whob who are these people? they wront looking for bombs or terrorists. they were looking for wood. what do you fied when you got to the factory? there were several armed agents taking a lot of wood. i was kind of a bizarre situation. the fish and wildlife service
gibson s door. mid morning i get a call that homeland security was raiding our fact tri. the ceo, a musician himself, has been running the company since 1986. i thought it was a joke because, you know, homeland security raiding a guitar fact trijust makes no sense. armed federal agencies showed up at gibson s headquarters and their factory two miles away. the supervisor was on site that day. the agents came in and told us to back away from our desks. and i kind of vividly remember, you know whob who are these people? they wront looking for bombs or terrorists. they were looking for wood. what do you fied when you got to the factory? there were several armed agents taking a lot of wood. i was kind of a bizarre
seized in the first raid. we reached out to the department of justice which pointed out that admission of criminal wrongdoing on gibson s part but officials declined to speak with us about it. they deferred to u.s. fish and wildlife which led the investigation. they declined to speak with us about the raid as well. we just wanted to bury the situation. that s what it took to get the government off of back, okay. today gibson is back to producing instruments as it always had but is using extra caution in purchasing its overseas wood. somebody chose us for some reason and there was no good reason to choose gibson. we were harassed, goods were seized, our business, you know, was injured. we had to pay lawyers. as for the controversial indian wood, the government eventually determined that gibson indeed purchased it
situation. the fish and wildlife service were there along with homeland security. they claimed the wood imported from madagascar violated a conservation law known as the lacy act. but gibson said it was the same wood they used all along, wood that many other companies use for their products. we had affidavits from the country of madagascar and their officials saying that we complied with all of their laws, which the government took exception to. then on august 24th, 2011, nearly two years after the first raid, while gibson was still waiting for formal charges, it happened again. i seen the badges on their sleeves and i was like, here we go again. this time gibson was accused of illegal purchasing wood from india. the first thing the officer in charge says was i need you to cut off your security camera first and then shut down all of your operations.