United Liberty
Despite raid, Gibson Guitars still hasn’t been charged
Tue, 02/28/2012 - 3:15pm | posted by Jason Pye
It has been months since federal agents raided Gibson Guitars in Nashville, seizing guitars and raw materials valued at roughtly $500,000 because the company allegedly violated Lacey Act regulations. However, Gibson has not been charged with a crime to date, yet the seized assets are still in the government’s possession:
At this point, nothing can be inferred, one way or the other, by failure to charge after this sort of delay.
The feds routinely delay many months, or years, after a search warrant before reaching a charging decision. The more obscure and petty the alleged violation, the more true this is. “Environmental crimes” violations are especially delayed, in my experience.
That’s not meant in the least to defend the raid, the investigation, or (if there is one) any prosecution, nor is it to defend the feds’ tendency to take their sweet time. It’s just an observation that you can’t draw conclusions about whether or not the feds think they have a case, or whether or not they will ever do anything, based on this sort of delay.
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