Gibson Guitar CEO warns that jobs may be sent overseas in aftermath of DOJ raidIn August the Department of Justice raided Gibson Guitar facilities in Memphis and Nashville, alleging a violation of the so-called Lacey Act, a law which bans the importation of certain kinds of wildlife, plants and wood.
And although two months have passed, Gibson Guitars CEO Henry Juszkiewicz has taken an unusually aggressive posture against the DOJ. On Wednesday, he told The Daily Caller there could be casualties from the DOJ’s actions, first of which he said may be higher guitar prices.
“It’s a zero-sum game,” he said. “You don’t create money out of thin air. So a dollar goes to lawyers in Washington, D.C. is a dollar that comes out of our consumers’ pockets, period.”
But he also cautioned that American jobs could be lost and sent overseas.
“You know, there’s a very real possibility we will have to move at least some processing [jobs] overseas,” Juszkiewicz said. “I’m trying to avoid that. But you know, I have to do what the business requires, and that’s a very realistic possibility.”
As for the aggressive response, Juszkiewicz explained he chose that strategy, over one that would involve less media exposure and more lawyers, because he was forced to.
“We had no choice,” Juszkiewicz said. “The things the Justice Department was doing was closing down our business and laying low was just not an option. Laying low would have meant really injuring our business significantly.”
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