Gibson Guitars Raided By Feds

ChainsawCharlie

http://www.nashvillepost.com/news/20..._raided_by_fbi I wonder what this will do the value of the guitars if this pans out?

Meetre

If it's true (the wood was illegally harvested) ANY guitar with the illegal wood WILL be going back to the country of origin for the wood. Lacey are very serious.

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TimberTom

I don't think that the government can take away a guitar from a consumer and ship it back to where it came from. Not only is that a logistical nightmare, the wood itself is worthless for anything but the guitar it was made into. What would be the point of sending it back to Madagascar? Then again.... a Lemur would fit nicely in the hole of an acoustic model.

Meetre

Look into the Lacey Act. If you install an illegally imported floor (or what ever) in a customers house, they can take that wood and return it to where it was taken from. Even if you and your direct supplier did nothing wrong, if it is illegally harvested and they find out it's in one of your projects, the country that the wood was taken from has the right to demand repossession.

In this case, I would bet that the wood was declared as a less expensive species to pay a lower tariff on it, and then there are only fines as long as they did it unknowingly.

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TimberTom

I understand that, but from reading this article, it seems that the country of Madagascar was in on it...

ChainsawCharlie

I looked up the Lacey Act. But according to that article, the president of Madagascar made it legal for export. If that's the case, there would be no violation. Unless maybe they were buying and importing before the law went into effect.

TempestV

People have been prosecuted for doing something in a different country that is legal there but illegal here. Drug use is a big example.
Even if the president of Madagascar made it legal to harvest, that doesn't mean it is legal for an American to buy it or import it.

Meetre

Part of the law is importing it and saying it's a different type of wood, so they pay lower tariffs on it. Most likely the case here, so the guitars are safe. I was just pointing out the fact that they can take it if it was illegally harvested, something to think about.

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SC sawdaddy

They can have my Les Paul when they pry my cold dead fingers from around it.