Tara Labs Raided (1 Viewer)

[Chu Gai]

According to AudioRevolution Tara Labs has been raided by the police presumably for their having said their cables were made in the US when they were outsourced from overseas. You'd think they should've gotten raided for snake oil. I guess that means prices will go up...down...oh hell, who cares.

 

[Bob_M]

That is funny. Bob

 

[Gabriela Mendez]

September 3, 2004


Police, Customs agents raid Ashland’s Tara Labs
By ANITA BURKE
Mail Tribune
ASHLAND — Federal agents and Ashland police conducted a raid at a local cable manufacturer’s office this week, seizing more than $600,000 worth of cables as well as documents and computers that authorities claim could be evidence that TARA Labs Inc. violated U.S. customs laws.

According to the warrant served Tuesday, investigators believe TARA Labs, a maker of high-performance audio and video cables for home-entertainment systems, had labeled cables made outside the country as American-made. Such labeling would violate a federal law barring the fraudulent introduction of goods into U.S. commerce.

Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, searched the business at 550 Clover Lane, Ashland, with the help of local police. The search took most of the day, Ashland police Deputy Chief Rich Walsh said.

Officers seized more than 42,212 cables, price lists, stickers, documents and computers. Laptops, desktop computers and computer-backup tapes were taken to look for evidence of customs law violations since Jan. 1, 2000, according to a warrant and seized-property list on file at U.S. District Court in Medford.

Matthew Bond, founder and vice president of TARA Labs, said the company hadn’t known of problems with its labeling process until the surprise search this week.

Advertisement



"TARA Labs was advised by Customs officials that we have been incorrectly removing labels on our products in regard to country of origin," he read from a prepared statement in a phone interview.

He said company officials thought that if cables were finished with plugs and packaged in the U.S., they could be labeled as U.S.-made even though the original wiring was produced in Asia.

Labels also were removed inappropriately from some wholly foreign-made cables by accident, Bond claimed. They were sold without labels showing where they were made.

"No fraud was intended or, indeed, perpetrated," he said. "These mistakes were rectified and won’t happen here again."

All the products in question were destined for markets outside the United States, he said.

Bond, who holds dual American and Australian citizenship, founded TARA Labs in Sydney, Australia, in 1986. He moved the business to Ashland in 1989 to meet growing U.S. demand. The company’s Web site says TARA products are sold in 38 countries.

Virginia Kice, ICE’s West Coast spokeswoman, said the federal agency has an open and ongoing investigation involving TARA Labs. That investigation is coordinated out of Portland.

Reach reporter Anita Burke at 776-4485, or e-mail [email protected]

Jose.