CEO Says Feds Treating Gibson Like “Drug Guys”

Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz talks to reporters outside its Nashville manufacturing facility.

The CEO of Gibson Guitar says federal agents took imported hardwood and cost the company a million dollars when they raided factories in Memphis and Nashville this week.

It’s the second time in two years the Fish & Wildlife Service has searched Gibson’s Tennessee factories and seized ebony and rosewood. Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz says agents were armed.

“In two cases we had a SWAT team treating us like drug guys, come in and shut us down with no notice. And that’s just wrong. We’re a business. We’re making guitars.”

In a statement, Gibson says it has complied with foreign laws and is innocent of any wrongdoing.

“What is more troubling is that the Justice Department’s position is that any guitar we ship out of this facility is potentially obstruction of justice.”

Juszkiewicz says he instructed workers to continue building guitars anyway, adding that he would take “personal responsibility” if it’s a violation.

Gibson has not been charged but believes the issue is interpretation of Indian law. It says wood harvested there has to be finished by Indian workers. And under the Lacey Act recently passed by the U.S. Congress, American companies have to follow local laws when importing wood.

In 2009, federal agents seized wood from Gibson that had been cut down in Madagascar. Company officials say they no longer exports materials from there, though charges have not been filed in that case either.