Gibson Guitar Corp. settled its criminal case with the Justice Department today, at least that’s when the public announcement was released. Gibson basically paid to make it all go away. Federal prosecutors agreed to drop the criminal case on the following conditions:
- Gibson pays $300,000 penalty
- Gibson donates $50,000 to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
- Gibson forfeits claim to $262,000 worth of exotic woods seized by the feds
Gibson CEO Henry Juszkiewicz had been publicly denouncing the actions of federal authorities ever since they raided the Tennessee-based facilities last year, reminiscent of taxpayers and taxpayer rights groups who oppose overly-aggressive IRS tax debt collection actions.
Juskiewicz stated that it would have cost the company much more to defend themselves in the litigation than the roughly $600,000 that they paid (and forfeited) in the settlement.