Mike Marlow wrote:
Han wrote:
Bill wrote in :

HeyBub wrote:
John Grossbohlin wrote:
http://www.marke****ch.com/story/gib...00000-fine-doj
-2012-08-06?link=MW_home_latest_news

Yep. They caved and I lost all respect for the company.

They had, as best I understand, a defensible position on the merits.
I'd be hard-pressed to imagine a jury finding against them.

This article (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19153588)
says"

Gibson admitted violating the Lacey Act, which requires firms to
*know* that timber they use is legally obtained.

From this, it appears they violated the law as charged. What is the
defensible position--that they *didn't know*?



Secondly, had they just strung (no pun intended) things out for a
few months, it's possible a new administration would have dropped
the entire business.

Seems to me Gibson chose the lesser of 2 evils:

from the BBC article referenced above:
quote
"As a result of this investigation and criminal enforcement agreement,
Gibson has acknowledged that it failed to act on information that the
Madagascar ebony it was purchasing may have violated laws intended to
limit overharvesting and conserve valuable wood species from
Madagascar, a country which has been severely impacted by
deforestation," said Assistant Attorney General Moreno following the
settlement.

The ebony was mainly in the form of strips that would be fashioned
into fretboards for guitars, mandolins and banjos.
/quote

Apparently the DoJ evidence was such that Gibson decided not to fight
it further.

Clearly so. But that by itself does not say much.


To consumers who are interested in Gibson, it exposes all that they need
to know about it, if they wish to make politicial statements with their
purchases.

If I governed a nation with a rainforest to protect, it would say to me
that I better watch the dealings with Gibson a little closer.

It's hard to say which side the Gibson's shareholders would be on.
Maybe some of them don't really care what the company has to do to boost
it's EPS if it can get away with it.

We may do well to go back to "The buck stops here!" and quit the legal
and political angle-shooting. We are getting so "smart" we are going to
bust our country.